We're In This Because Of Greed

State Representative, Rob Eissler, is being fined $10,600 and has to payback an estimated $18,000 from improper expenditures from his campaign donations. Before this decision was made he previously told the media that he might have to payback as much as $70,000.

Why such a big jump in dollar amounts?

In my opinion, Eissler knew up front the amount of donation money he had spent on things he wasn't suppose to. Otherwise, why would he give that high of a dollar estimate?

He had spent around $52,000 on paying his wife to run his legislative office and $17,000 to, as he says, "pay rent" for an Austin Condo. The law states that a representative may not use the donations to pay himself, spouse, or any dependent children. It also states that they may use to money for living expenses but not to buy real estate. The ethics commission is not making Eissler payback the full amount due to his claims of using part of the money on living expenses.

Without a doubt, Eissler should either have a larger fine or have to payback more of his campaign expenditures. He blatantly spent around $52,000 on his wife. That obviously goes against the state law yet he's not having to repay that amount. Eissler claims that part of the "rent" included living expenses. Therefore, the ethics commission lowered the amount he had to payback. What Eissler did was wrong and the fact that he's not having to payback what he owes is wrong. He's using money that others have given him for his own personal needs and not using it towards what it was intended for.