Craig Gets No-Gift Waivers Ethics Committee Allows Gifts From ‘Diverse’ Group Of People

The U.S. Senate has a rule that senators can’t accept gifts worth more than $49.99.

But Republican Sen. Larry Craig’s personal financial disclosure report, filed Friday, shows he got two waivers and a favorable ruling from the Senate’s ethics committee.

Craig received a painting, valued at $2,200, at a Boise party last summer commemorating his 50th birthday. The painting, by Clinton Gregory, was a field scene of pheasants.

Craig said he received a ruling from the ethics panel that it was proper to accept the gift “so long as it was given by a widely diverse group of people and no one person giving over $250.”

Craig’s report attached a list of eight donors. They hardly qualified as “a widely diverse group of people” since all eight were from the Boise area and are business or insurance executives or people who lobby the Idaho Legislature.

Craig campaign press secretary Mike Tracy said there were numerous donations to that painting, and the senator’s report listed only major contributors.

The Republican got a waiver for accepting a 96-year-old political memento.

Gladys L. Hyke of Lewiston gave Craig a program from the 1900 Republican National Convention. It was valued at $150. Craig’s letter to the Select Committee on Ethics said the program had been handed down through three generations in an Idaho family, but no longer holds any sentimental value to the family.

Craig said Hyke gave him the program for safekeeping.

The committee said Craig could keep it, because the donor has no direct interest in legislation, it was given to Craig for safekeeping and it appeared no conflict of interest was created.

Last November, Craig was honored by the Vietnam Veterans Institute with its “Award For Life Service to Veterans,” a $9,000 portrait.

A spokesman for the organization said at the award ceremony that Craig was honored because he has voted positively on “every major piece of veterans legislation.”

The panel advised Craig last year that he could accept the gift.

There’s an exception in the rule, allowing senators to accept “a bona fide award received in recognition of public service and available to the general public,” said a letter from staff director Victor Baird.

Past recipients of the veterans’ award mainly were senators or members of Congress but also included the late Vince Lombardi and Gen. William C. Westmoreland.