Or this conservative protector of American family values?
Burton, they said, was damaged goods. Stories were circulating on the
Hill that the fiery Hoosier Republican, a known womanizer, had
fathered a child out of wedlock and that it was only a matter of time
before it surfaced in the media.
Gingrich dismissed the allegations as trivial and unimportant. The
Speaker was engaged in an illicit affair of his own with a House
Agriculture Committee staff member and had little stomach to punish
another member of his own party for extra-marital dalliances.
But Burton had a more serious problem. He had approved nearly
$500,000 in payments and salary to a former model named Claudia
Keller, who was also listed as his campaign manager, and who
appeared simultaneously on his political and official House payrolls. It is
against the law for lawmakers to use their office budgets to subsidize
their campaigns, or vice versa.
In Burton's case, the dual payments to Keller, mostly over a nine year
span, were often made during the same periods of time, according to
federal records. In one year, according to House Finance office
documents and FEC records, Keller received almost $22,000 for
working at Burton's Indianapolis and Greenwood district offices an
average of two days a week, along with nearly $44,000 for her
full-time campaign job.
The Burton campaign had also paid Keller $250 a month to rent office
space in her Lawrence, Ind., home, which is outside Burton's district,
by declaring it the campaign headquarters. And Keller also received
more than $50,000 in campaign-related expenses, including payments
for appearances by her clown service, FEC records show.
Keller was well known in Burton's district as a longtime girlfriend.
Denise Range, a neighbor, said she often saw Keller wearing lingerie
when Burton came to visit. Melissa Bickel, another neighbor, said
Keller would send her daughter over to their house when Burton came
calling, which was three or four times a week. When asked about this
at the time, a Burton spokesman said he was not sure what Keller's
duties were, but would "look into it." Keller later moved to Washington
to become the Congressman's scheduler.
Burton eventually went public about his out-of-wedlock child just
before the Indianapolis Star was about to break the story. Even
reluctant Democrats agreed he handled the issue well, admitting the
affair and expressing regret about the damage it inflicted on his
marriage.
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