(The Hill)
Max Greenwood 10/18/19 11:04 AM
Spending on private flights by Democratic presidential candidates soared over the past three months, from roughly $680,000 in the second quarter to more than $2.2 million in the third fundraising period of the year.
Topping the spending list was former Vice President Joe Biden, who dropped about $924,000 on private air travel in the period between July 1 and Sept. 30, campaign finance reports show. That’s more than three times as much as the $256,000 he spent in the second quarter.
But Biden isn’t the only one whose charter plane spending surged. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg spent nearly $479,000 on private flights over the past three months, up from roughly $300,000 in the second quarter. And Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) used about $253,000 in campaign cash to charter flights, significantly more than the $17,000 she spent in the second quarter.
The Democratic primary field’s leading progressives, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), also saw their private air travel spending swell in the three-month fundraising period. Sanders’s spending rose from just $18,000 in the second quarter to more than $360,000 in the third. Meanwhile, Warren’s spending jumped from just under $34,000 to more than $132,000.
An aide to Warren’s campaign said that the campaign offsets its carbon emissions from travel, noting that it paid $10,150 to Native Energy, a carbon offset provider, last month. Buttigieg’s campaign likewise spent $1,900 on carbon offsets, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
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