Calif. Congressman's Video Game Charges Prompt FEC Letter

TEMECULA, CA- A Southern California congressman is blaming his 13-year-old son for suspect charges on a campaign funds credit card which caught the attention of the FEC this week.

The Federal Election Commission has reached out to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, after several dozen charges for a video gaming service were made. The charges, totaling $1,302, were all made between Oct. 13 and Dec. 16 of last year, according to the FEC letter. They were made to a company called Steam, which is a platform for video gamers to download, play and connect to various content and users.

Hunter reported the charges — along with a $1,650 charge for school tuition — on his 2015 year-end campaign finance disclosure form, according to his spokesman, Joe Kasper.

Kasper tells Patch that if the video game charges may seem out of place — that’s because they are.

It was Hunter’s 13-year-old son, who was 12 at the time, who connected the card to his Steam account without his father’s permission in October, according to Kasper.

"Hunter's son pulled the card and bought this Steam game,” Kasper said.

Kasper says as soon as the Hunters discovered the boy had swiped the card, they canceled the gaming service. At that point, they reimbursed Hunter’s campaign for the charges, but the gaming provider kept billing the card.

"Everything you see there on that account was after the account was closed down,” Kasper told Patch.

In December, after the family was allegedly getting nowhere with the company to stop the charges, they had the bank issue them a new credit card, with a new number, for the campaign account, according to Kasper. The charge dispute continues.

On April 4, the FEC sent a letter to the congressman, asking for clarification of the charges he had identified as “personal expense- to be paid back.” A practice, Kasper claims, is standard operating procedure any time a politician self-reports a personal expense.

Upon providing clarification, he must also pay back the campaign account and file an amended report, according to the FEC. Hunter has until May 9 to respond to the commission.

The congressman has voiced his support of video games in the past, and wrote this op-ed in Politico.

As for the tuition charge, Kasper says that was made with the wrong card by accident, and the Hunter family reimbursed the campaign account when they determined the school couldn’t easily refund the money.

Congressman Duncan Hunter is the son of another former longtime San Diego area congressman of the same name, Duncan L. Hunter. He was just tapped last week by Presidential Candidate Donald Trump to serve as a congressional liaison.

He's also made headlines for vaping during a congressional hearing in Washington to show his opposition to banning e-cigarettes and vaporizers in certain places.

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