Election Watch 2008
Heard on the Hill: Luck of the Draw
By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
Roll Call Newspaper Staff
June 18, 2008
A few Members of Congress got especially lucky last year. Though many political types like to brag about earning their money the old-fashioned (read: hard) way, two Members made big bucks in another time-honored tradition - they won it.
Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) reported in his 2007 financial disclosures winning $1,700 at the Olympic Casino in Estonia. Cardoza was part of a Congressional delegation trip last July along with six other Congressmen - none of whom were as lucky. A spokesman said the Congressman took a solo after-dinner stroll while visiting the Eastern European country and popped into a casino near the hotel where the Members were staying. A coin in the right slot earned him the $1,700 payout, the spokesman said.
And Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) won $5,000 on a scratch-off lottery ticket he bought in his hometown of Chicago, he tells HOH. Davis says he occasionally buys scratch-off tickets, and has been a particularly good customer since earlier this year, when the Illinois Lottery introduced a game whose proceeds will fund AIDS charities.
He bought his winning card shortly before Christmas at a little convenience store where he often goes to buy a Coke or an ice cream bar before recording a weekly TV show in Chicago. He says he was thrilled - "I couldn't believe it!" - and used the proceeds for a very good cause. "I spent it on my wife," he confessed to HOH.
Davis and Cardoza aren't the only lucky ducks in Congress: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) both have made headlines in the past few years when they took home big-time lotto winnings. Lightning struck three times for Sensenbrenner, who won $250,000 in the D.C. Lottery in 1997, then racked up two $1,000 jackpots in 2007. Gregg won $853,492 with a Powerball ticket in 2005.
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