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Under normal circumstances, any author who raked in $600,000 for a series of self-published children’s books would be snapped up by a prestigious publisher and handed a lucrative multi-book deal.
But in the case of Baltimore’s former mayor Catherine Pugh, the sales were a sham. Most of the “Healthy Holly” books bought by local health care companies and the Baltimore school system were never distributed, and Pugh used the money to finance her political campaigns and renovate a house.
Politicians love to write books (whether readers finish them is another matter), and Pugh is hardly the first to come under scrutiny over hers. Here’s a look at some others who have.
Herman Cain
As a Republican presidential candidate in 2011, Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, used $64,000 from his campaign funds to pay T.H.E. New Voice Inc., a motivational-speaking company he owned, for thousands of copies of his books. He distributed his books, which include “This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House” and “They Think You’re Stupid: Why Democrats Lost Your Vote,” to donors.
Sarah Palin
In 2009, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, used $63,000 from her political action committee to buy thousands of copies of her memoir, “Going Rogue,” from her publisher, HarperCollins, to send them to donors. She also used money from her PAC to buy $8,000 of bookmarks and to reimburse HarperCollins $20,000 in travel expenses for her personal photographer and an aide, whom she brought on her book tour. According to some reports, Palin’s PAC spent more money on her book than on donations to political candidates.
John G. Rowland
In 2004, prosecutors investigating John G. Rowland, then the Republican governor of Connecticut, released documents showing that a state employee and confidante had approached a nonprofit foundation about obtaining a $32,000 loan to finance the publication of a children’s book, “Marvelous Max, the Mansion Mouse,” by Rowland’s wife, Patricia. The foundation’s lawyers rejected the request, but its chairman wrote personal checks totaling $41,000 so that the book could be published, with the understanding that any profits would benefit both Patricia Rowland and the foundation. Facing impeachment, John Rowland resigned from office and served 10 months in federal prison on charges of conspiring to commit tax fraud and deprive taxpayers of his honest services. In 2015, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison for violations of campaign finance laws.
Newt Gingrich
In Dec. 1994, Newt Gingrich, then a Republican congressman and the incoming Speaker of the House, was forced to give up a $4.5 million advance for two books about conservative ideology to avoid the “appearance of cashing in on his party’s victory in the November elections.” Gingrich vowed to recoup the loss by increasing his royalty rate.
Jim Wright
In 1988, it was the Democratic Speaker of the House, Jim Wright, who came under fire for improprieties related to the sale of his book “Reflections of a Public Man.” The book, a pamphlet-size collection of speeches and casual observations, was at the center of a House Ethics Committee investigation, led by Newt Gingrich, then a congressman. Accused of selling the book in bulk to a handful of supporters as a means of skirting federal election laws — which capped individual campaign contributions at $1,000 — Wright resigned. At the time, Gingrich himself was benefiting from an unorthodox book arrangement: 21 investors put up $105,000 to promote “Window of Opportunity,” a book applying conservative ideas to computers, space, health care and education that he wrote with two others.
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