Travel habits of the Democrat freshmen class

NO LINES - U.S. Rep. Ron Klein inside a mock airplane during an event supporting an airline passenger bill of rights.  Klein avoids the hassles faced by most air travelers, frequently making payments to a private air charter company.

While U.S. Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, is the most frequent campaign traveler in the Democrat’s freshmen class, spending nearly $44,000 on hotels, travel agents, airline and rail tickets in 2007, she is not its most pampered.  That distinction belongs to Florida’s Ron Klein.

According to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records, Klein spent $43,158.18 on campaign travel last year, more than half of which went to a private aircraft company.  Klein made three payments, totaling $26,587.17, to Executive Fliteways, which charters private jets.

But skipping lines at airport security isn’t the only way Klein travels in style.  His FEC filings report he has stayed at some of the nation’s priciest hotels while ostensibly on campaign business, including the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Chicago’s upscale Allerton Hotel, and in New York City at both the tony W Hotel and The Benjamin; which, among other luxury amenities, offers the “Dream Dog” program, including “everything a pampered pet may need to enjoy their travels in high style, from grooming services to a lush bathrobe to a consultation with a pet psychic.”

“At the end of a long day,” the hotel’s website states, “pets can happily doze off to doggy dreamland on one of the three specially designed dog beds available through The Benjamin’s new dog bed menu.”

While FEC records indicate Klein is the only freshmen Democrat whose stays included the availability of a pet psychic, he is not the only one who prefers private air travel.

Three other freshmen Democrats reported payments to private air carriers.  U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-NY, paid Executive Flightways $7,148.19, while his New York colleague John Hall paid Lane Aviaton, another private charter company, nearly $6,000.  In addition to a taste for private aircraft, Hall also shares Klein’s preference for expensive hotels, paying the Beverly Wilshire in posh Beverly Hills, California, $1,876.25.

The freshmen class’s other private air traveler is U.S. Representative Tim Mahoney, D-FL.  Mahoney paid a total of $6,250.67 to three private charter companies, Gold Coast Aviation, Aircoastal Helicopters, and Sapphire Aviation.

Sapphire Aviation - “serving the Bahamas’ best kept secrets,” according to the company’s website - received nearly 75 percent of Mahoney’s private air travel expenditures, a total of $4,673.24 on three different dates.

Not all freshmen spent so lavishly on campaign trips.  A majorityap.com analysis of FEC records found that 30 freshmen spent less than the class average of $6,668.00, including four members who reported no hotel, airline or rail expenditures.  Many scoured the Internet looking for bargains, with 13 Democrats reporting expenditures to Priceline.com, Orbitz, Hotels.com and other low-cost travel sites.

The only freshman to report leaving the 50 United States was New Jersey’s Albio Sires, who traveled to Puerto Rico in September.  While Sires reported a total of only $2,050.21 on 2007 campaign travel, he declared an additional $18,507.96 in spending for a “political dinner” at the Restaurante La Casona in Santurce, Puerto Rico.

Gillibrand hosted campaign fundraisers in London, England, and Paris, France, but did not bill her campaign fund for those trips, according to her spokeswoman.