A new report reveals U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Ted Budd took a series of “lavish trips paid for by his benefactor Club for Growth” throughout his time in Washington, DC. Totaling over $30,000, the vacations included “posh” resorts that cost a minimum of $900 a night – representing “contrasting images” to the “small-town guy” he portrays on the campaign trail. 

Club for Growth has poured millions into boosting Budd’s campaign and dragged him across the finish line in the nasty Republican primary. 

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WGHP: Senate candidate Ted Budd’s expensive trips paid for by benefactors draw criticism from Democrats

• During his early years as the representative of North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, Rep. Ted Budd, like most of his colleagues, took advantage of his position to take several trips funded by outside groups.
• But now those sometimes lavish trips that were paid for by his benefactor Club for Growth and other conservative organizations are drawing new scrutiny after members of his own party attacked him during the Republican US Senate primary, which he won, for the outside money his campaign had received.
• Budd’s financial backing often became the focus of his opponents, especially McCrory, during debates, when Budd wasn’t there to respond.
• Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee, spent about $14 million to back Budd during the primary. That was the same approach as this super PAC took in 2016, when Budd emerged from a field of 17 and won his primary in the 13th District with 20% of the vote
•  Budd is an avowed conservative who votes against most spending plans in Congress. He campaigns on being a small-town guy from Advance who fights against big-government Democrats in Washington, D.C.
• But those contrasting images also create a target, and Dory MacMillan, a spokesperson for Beasley, quickly took a shot at that target.
• “The same special interests that spent millions to get Congressman Budd through the primary also paid for his luxury trips around the world,” she said in a statement for WGHP. “It’s the latest example of how Congressman Budd is another corrupt politician who wants power at all costs and plays by his own rules to help himself.”
• Said NC Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson in a statement for WGHP: “Congressman Budd is a corrupt Washington politician who took tens of thousands of dollars in special interest money to go on luxury trips while failing to deliver results on the critical issues facing North Carolinians.”
• Chris Cooper, a government professor and elections expert from Western Carolina University, said that “when politicians talk of ‘the swamp,’ this is exactly the kind of thing they’re referring to. There is nothing illegal here. Nor is there anything particularly out of the ordinary.
• “But the cozy relationships between third-party groups (whether they be formal interest groups, or groups that are politically active in other ways) and elected officials certainly contributes to distrust in politicians and lack of efficacy in the political process.”
• “Voters do not like politicians getting special treatment by donors and interest groups,” he said. 
• “Voters are rightly concerned that the policeman will be more responsive to the interest group than their constituents.”

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