Mailers Latest Example of Peter Roskam’s Willingness to Bend Rules to Stay in Congress

(Downers Grove, IL) November 1, 2018 – Residents of the Sixth Congressional District received taxpayer-funded advertisements in the mail this week from Congressman Peter Roskam’s office in possible violation of House ethics rules. Members of Congress are prohibited from sending any unsolicited mass mailing to 500 or more people, a practice known as “franking,” within 90 days of an election. However, the mailer that voters received this past week promoting Roskam says it “was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense” from Peter Roskam’s Congressional office. Pictures of the mailers are available here and here.

“You would have to be pretty gullible to believe it’s a complete coincidence that Sixth District residents are getting mailers from Peter Roskam’s congressional office that look like campaign mail just days before an election.,” said Greg Bales, Campaign Manager for Casten for Congress. “It’s pretty clear that Peter Roskam is abusing taxpayer dollars to aid his own re-election campaign, the only question is whether he is doing so in violation of House rules. After 25 years as a career politician, Peter Roskam will say or do anything to stay in Congress, and voters deserve better than that.”

Bales added, “Peter Roskam should at least have the courtesy to tell voters how much of their taxpayer dollars are going towards these mailers.”

This is the latest sign of Peter Roskam’s willingness to bend the rules to help his campaign. This fall, Peter Roskam benefited from a fake newspaper that was mailed to voters in West Chicago and filled with political advertisements for Peter Roskam and other Republican candidates in DuPage County but did not contain the legally required disclaimers.

Earlier this week, the Casten campaign also launched a digital ad, website, and mailer highlighting Peter Roskam’s ethics issues. Peter Roskam was previously investigated for potential violations of federal law and House rules after he improperly accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of foreign travel from the Taiwanese government. Then, he tried to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which launched the investigation of him and referred the allegations to the Congressional Ethics Committee for further review.