Federal election filings show that 26-year-old shopping center heiress Capri Cafaro has loaned her campaign almost as much money as Republican 14th District Congressman Steven LaTourette has raised to defend his seat.
According to the latest data from the Federal Elections Commission, Cafaro loaned her campaign $1,640,259 or 90 percent of the $1.8 million she's raised. LaTourette, meanwhile, has taken in a total of $1,644,950.
In terms of quality of their disclosures about who is giving them money, the Center for Responsive Politics -- which categorizes and evaluates data from the FEC -- handed the edge to LaTourette, saying only 1 percent of his filings were incomplete, compared with 10 percent of Cafaro's.
LaTourette's biggest contributor is Forest City Enterprises and its employees. He also received $10,750 from the Cleveland Clinic and its employees.
LaTourette's girlfriend is currently lobbying his House committee for the Cleveland Clinic.
His relationship with Jennifer Laptook has led Democrats to demand an investigation by Attorney General John Ashcroft. They claim because of LaTourette's living arrangement with Laptook -- who was his chief of staff when they first starting seeing each other -- should be considered an ``in-kind'' contribution to LaTourette.
Cafaro dropped her campaign's communications director Wednesday after it was revealed that he leaked a surveillance tape of LaTourette leaving Laptook's Virginia home to a local TV station.
Cafaro's largest donor is the Cafaro Co. -- her family's company that runs several malls and commercial properties around the country. Members of the company have given her $18,650, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Capri Cafaro took an immunity deal during the case against former congressman James A. Traficant because of a ``gray area of impropriety'' regarding her role in the bribery scandal.
Capri Cafaro was an executive in a company run by her father, J.J. Cafaro, who was convicted of conspiring to bribe Traficant to get a piece of technology Cafaro was pushing to be approved by the FAA. Capri Cafaro has said she was her father's ``eyes and ears in Washington'' during this time.
Her father, who had 15 months of community service for his conviction in the case and is an executive vice president in the Cafaro Co., has given his daughter the maximum amount allowed in the race -- $4,000.
She is the only candidate he has given money to in this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
