Disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Massa continues paying wife from campaign account

Introduction

Former Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who resigned from Congress nearly three years ago amid accusations he groped colleagues and cohabited with junior-level male staff members, continues to cut his wife a monthly check from his campaign account, a new Federal Election Commission disclosure indicates.

Beverly Massa received a monthly payment of $692 in October, November and December for “accounting services,” according to the Massa for Congress committee’s latest report, filed this morning. She is listed in documents as the committee’s treasurer.

Massa’s campaign account contained more than $62,000 as of Dec. 31, the report states. But aside from the payments to Massa’s wife, the committee’s only other payments in late 2012 went toward low-dollar legal fees, taxes and payroll services.

Beverly Massa used to receive even more compensation from the committee: Politico noted last year that Massa once paid his wife about double what he does now.

The ex-congressman, who formally resigned in March 2010, was once popular among union interests and Democratic leadership political action committees, which together donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign committee during his brief political career.

Why is 2013 an important year for campaign finance? Dave Levinthal and Michael Beckel will answer that, and many other questions about the money-in-politics world in a live chat on Monday, Feb. 4, at 1 p.m. ET.