by Frank James

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, or CREW, has a new report called "Family Affair" which the watchdog group says is an examination of members of Congress and how they use their offices to their families' financial benefit.

According to the organization:

CREW decided to undertake the study in light of several well publicized cases of members of Congress using their positions to enrich their family members. CREW examined 337 members of the House over the 2002, 2004 and 2006 election cycles.

CREW continued:

Highlights of the report include:

64 paid family members through their campaign committees or PACs (26 Democrats and 38 Republicans);

24 have relatives who lobby Congress (10 Democrats and 14 Republicans);

19 used their campaign committees or PACs to pay a family business or a business that employs a family member (9 Democrats and 10 Republicans);

17 used their campaign funds to make campaign contributions to relatives (11 Democrats and 6 Republicans);

15 used their positions to benefit a family member or a family member’s client (3 Democrats and 12 Republicans);

At least 7 paid offspring who ranged from school-age to college-age (all Republicans)

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said, "CREW’s report, Family Affair, shines a spotlight on the troubling practice of lawmakers using their congressional positions as profit centers for family members. Our hope is that the release of Family Affair spearheads a public debate leading to changes in existing law to end these abuses."

To construct the report, CREW used available sources, like web sites that track congressional campaign disclosures and media accounts, so its report is more a work of aggregation than investigation.

It's unclear that all the information has been vetted to the degree it should have been before being included in the report.

For instance, in reading the material CREW put together for Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.,) the reader can't be sure all of those cited are indeed members of Davis's family since CREW didn't receive confirmation or denials from Davis's office on whether those named were indeed family members.

The report, for instance, mentions that someone named Wallace Davis received $1,500 on Feb. 20, 2004 for catering a fund raiser but as it does with all the Davis entries it says any family relationship with the congressman wasn't confirmed by the congressman's office.

It's possible that this money was to former Chicago alderman, Wallace Davis Jr., who was convicted on federal corruption charges, served his time, and is the proprietor of Wallace's Catfish Corner at 2800 W. Madison on Chicago's West Side.

If this is indeed the Wallace Davis the CREW report refers to, then there may be a problem, at least with this example. No reporting I've come across indicates that the two men are related by anything other than the same last name and that they both served as Chicago alderman.