'I'm really rich' — Trump's running mate can't say the same
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has bragged he could get a billion-dollar campaign loan simply by walking into a bank.
Though independent appraisals of Trump's net worth have concluded his claimed $10 billion net worth is exaggerated, he will soon be the wealthiest person to receive a major party's nomination and has made his fortune a campaign issue.
In 1990, during an ultimately unsuccessful bid for Congress, Pence used campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses, including his mortgage, his wife's car payment, a personal credit card, parking tickets, groceries and golf greens fees.
Former FEC chairman Scott E. Thomas, a Democrat who now practices in the Washington office of law firm Blank Rome, was one of the three commissioners who voted to find Pence in violation of federal campaign law.
Lee Ann Elliott, a former Republican commissioner and commission chair, voted against sanctioning Pence, citing past commission decisions that gave campaigns "wide discretion" to spend their money.
Because Indiana releases little information about officeholders' personal finances, Pence's current fortunes will remain unclear until he files a new personal disclosure with the Federal Election Commission.