For Republicans, it’s all cut and dried: Spend campaign cash in contravention to the rules, as Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr. did, and get run out of Congress.
Read more Where are the protests and outrage about this California ‘prove you’re gay’ law?
For Democrats, it’s different. Sen. Ruben Gallego did the exact same kind of slush-fund spending for luxuries that Duncan Hunter did … and is running for president.
According to Politico:
Sen. Ruben Gallego repeatedly used campaign cash to fund luxury outings with his wife and to care for his children since launching his campaign for Senate in 2023, according to a POLITICO review of campaign finance records and a person familiar with the senator’s spending. The Arizona Democrat has used his leadership PAC to fund recent trips to Miami, Chicago, Disneyland and Disney World with his family. Gallego has tapped that PAC and his main campaign committee for more than $18,000 in reimbursements for child care since 2019 — including $400 to his wife’s mother for babysitting.
And here’s Politico again, from 2019:
Federal prosecutors have accused Rep. Duncan Hunter of improperly using campaign funds to pursue numerous romantic affairs with congressional aides and lobbyists, according to a new court filing late Monday night.
The Justice Department alleged that Hunter (R-Calif.) and his wife Margaret Hunter illegally diverted $250,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including to fund lavish vacations and their children’s school tuition. Monday’s court filings also spell out allegations that Hunter routinely used campaign funds to pay for Ubers, bar tabs, hotel rooms and other expenses to fund at least five extramarital relationships.
And if the love-affairs angle of the Hunter case seems a bit of a stretch for comparison to Gallego, note that Gallego has been mighty close to the walking love-bunny, now-disgraced Rep. Eric Swalwell, with some reports claiming that he, too, was involved in some of Swalwell’s many trysts, which he denies. The pair of them traveled together as bosom buddies to sin-city places such as Dubai, while Politico reports that they held joint fundraisers, billed as their “Swallego Victory Fund,” for even more of their funhouse partying.
CORRUPTION: Ruben Gallego & Eric Swalwell ran a joint “Swallego Victory Fund” that covered a $9K Miami hotel & Super Bowl tickets. His team calls the personal slush fund FEC-compliant. https://t.co/IlZHbbXcih pic.twitter.com/5mK8QZNbe6
Read more Learning nothing: L.A. can’t put out a warehouse fire even as city gets covered in smoke
— @amuse (@amuse) June 21, 2026
In other words, one can’t dismiss some lovelorn romance in this social spending as had also been the case in Hunter’s downfall.
Politico went gentle on Gallego, saying he ‘leaned into’ questionable spending. That wasn’t the tone they took with Hunter. Yes, the charges did have merit in Hunter’s case and down he went.
They also seeem to have merit with Gallego, so it’s funny how nobody is calling for him to resign, too. The Justice Department was pretty busy cleaning house with Hunter, and this was during the first Trump term, albeit with a prosecutor who donated to Hillary Clinton. No such prosecutions seen so far (though this may change) with Gallego. Yet it appears to be the exact same transgression.
Now Gallego plans to seek the presidency, and Politico is on the case, quite possibly taking marching orders from whoever it was who ordered them to take out Swalwell on behalf of Democrat corporate status-quo man Xavier Becerra in the California governor’s race.
Should Gallego even be in Congress for this naked flouting of campaign law? Or are the rules different when Democrats do it?
Read more Superpowers don’t ask for permission to be superpowers
Image: Screenshot from X video