Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles state senator running for Congress, has spent more than $125,000 gathered from campaign donors over the last six years on shopping excursions, gourmet meals, entertainment and upscale hotels around the globe, public records show.
At Patina, the haute cuisine restaurant at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cedillo paid $1,203 for dinner. He dropped $289 at Nic's Martini Lounge in Beverly Hills. At the Standard, a downtown hotel known for its hip rooftop bar and swimming pool, Cedillo and his staff spent $5,705 over the course of 26 visits.
In Mumbai, India, Cedillo's stay at the Four Seasons came to $829; his tab at the Bar des Arts in Sao Paulo, Brazil, $229; his hotel and dining charges on a jaunt to Rome and Florence, $1,969.
Cedillo, a former labor leader who made his name fighting to provide driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, is not the only state lawmaker to tap campaign money for what many would consider lavish meals and travel. He often dines and attends retreats with fellow legislators.
But the scale of Cedillo's spending was on par with that of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, whose worldwide travel and shopping at retailers such as Louis Vuitton in Paris led the state to tighten campaign disclosure rules last summer.
Cedillo's spending, detailed in reports he filed with the secretary of state, contrasts with the frugal record of Judy Chu, his chief rival for the San Gabriel Valley congressional seat. A former Monterey Park assemblywoman elected to the state Board of Equalization in 2006, Chu has spent no campaign money on shopping or entertainment, and less than $5,000 on meals and travel over six years.
The two are vying in a May 19 election to fill the House seat vacated by U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
Cedillo's expenses include $7,022 at Nordstrom; $3,483 at Banana Republic; $1,418 at Ann Taylor; $498 at Bloomingdale's; $450 at Crate & Barrel; and $375 at Macy's.
"None of it's for me," Cedillo said in an interview this week at his campaign headquarters in El Monte.
All of the purchases were gifts for staff, legislators and "other people who are important to my campaign and my office," Cedillo said.
The same, he said, goes for the $483 spent at Andrew's Ties in Rome, $132 at the Louvre Museum in Paris and $117 at an unidentified Coach leather outlet.
