Earlier this year, Navy veteran Joe Collins was an obscure candidate for president, running on the Green Party ticket to fight against the “party establishment.”

Now, he’s one of two Republicans running to unseat Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). And his campaign is spending generously on Uber rides, steakhouse dinners, plane flights and nights at five-star hotels, including President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel.

The southern California native never got his presidential campaign off the ground. After a quiet launch in January, he changed his party affiliation to Republican in mid-February before terminating his campaign in May.

As a pro-Trump Republican running against a polarizing Democrat, Collins’ congressional effort is much more successful. He raised more than $451,000 from July through September, mostly from small donors. That’s a stunning three-month haul for a relatively unknown candidate with little chance of winning in a deep-blue district. 

Collins quickly put the newfound cash to use. In August, Collins posted photos with Donald Trump Jr. and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani at a fundraiser for Trump in the Hamptons. He got there by making a $5,600 contribution from his campaign to Trump’s joint fundraising committee. Collins’ campaign also spent nearly $9,000 at Trump’s hotel in Washington, between a July event and a September stay. 

That’s a tiny slice of the roughly $20 million political committees have spent at Trump-owned businesses since the 2016 election cycle. But the Trump Organization isn’t the only company benefiting from Collins’ campaign spending. 

In just three months, Collins’ brand-new campaign spent nearly $59,000 on travel and food, making up nearly 14 percent of his spending. That includes more than $19,000 on Delta flights, nearly $5,000 on Uber rides and a whopping $14,609 at the Palm Restaurant, a high-end Washington steakhouse that features portraits of major political players on its walls.  

Much of the remainder of Collins’ spending went toward fundraising efforts to keep the money flowing in. The Collins campaign paid an unknown company called Pure Strategy Solutions $77,378 through September to do some of its fundraising work. There is no record of the company in California public records, nor is there any record of the company’s Beverly Hills address. 

Collins didn’t respond to a request for comment about his campaign spending. 

The campaign primarily utilized Alexandria, Va., firm Campaign Solutions to raise money, shelling out $271,833 for online fundraising consulting. 

Those fundraising efforts appeared to pay off. Collins took in a stunning 81 percent of his campaign cash from donors giving $200 or less. Of candidates to raise at least $100,000 so far, only Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) collects a higher rate, at nearly 82 percent. 

Right behind Collins in the small donor metric is Omar Navarro, another Republican challenger in the same district. Navarro, a perennial candidate, was blown out by Waters in both 2016 and 2018 but is nonetheless running again this cycle.

Navarro, who spends much of his time campaigning, paid himself nearly $34,884 with campaign money during last year’s midterms and $13,210 so far this year. That’s on top of tens of thousands of dollars spent on transportation, electronics, hotel visits and meals, including $3,878 at Trump’s D.C. hotel and steakhouse, BLT Prime. Navarro sent another $3,000 to the United Latino Foundation, a Navarro-run organization with no apparent paper trail that says its goal is to spread conservatism to the Latino community.

In an interview, Navarro said his campaign experience allows him to run a more efficient campaign that bypasses pricey consultants and staffers. He said expensive meals are part of the cost of doing business with donors or others with valuable connections. 

“When there’s someone, like a donor, who is willing to help the campaign, they’re not going to want to go to McDonald’s or Burger King,” Navarro said. 

That’s not to say Navarro gets a lot of big checks — he received just 15 contributions of $1,000 or more so far this year. He makes most of his money through small-dollar contributions, thanks in part to a robust direct mail operation. 

Navarro, who has more than 251,000 followers on Twitter, has become a popular figure in conservative circles and finds himself being retweeted by Trump. He drew controversy, and a visit from the FBI, after he posted a fake letter suggesting Waters wanted to resettle refugees in her district. Navarro’s criticism of Waters, one of the most infamous lawmakers among Republican voters, has earned him airtime on major platforms such as Fox News. 

The California Republican acknowledged that running against Waters helps him raise money, but said he was born and raised in the district and just happens to be running against a controversial candidate. Still, it’s no accident that Waters has two well-funded Republican challengers despite holding a safe blue seat. 

Waters, one of Trump’s top enemies in Congress, is pictured frequently in advertisements by conservative groups and Republican candidates in fundraising appeals and attack ads. Collins and Navarro find themselves locked in a competitive race for donors who want to see Waters unseated next November — while building their brands in the process. 

Combined, the two have raised more than $853,000, despite the fact that Waters’ district isn’t close to competitive. Robert Shrum, professor at the University of Southern California and a longtime Democratic political consultant, said it was “impossible” that a Republican could win in Waters’ district. 

“I don’t care how much you spend … she’s got deep roots in the community, it’s overwhelmingly a Democratic district, Donald Trump is profoundly unpopular in that district,” he said, adding that the candidates might be successful if their aim is earning a television or radio gig. 

What about Waters?

Waters herself has come under criticism for spending campaign money generously, particularly when it comes to paying her own daughter. Waters’ campaign paid Karen Waters $56,000 in the third quarter alone — $136,000 so far this cycle — for fees associated with a slate mailer operation. 

Those mailers produce a lucrative return on investment. Democrats in federal and state-level races pay Waters’ campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars to put their names on the mailers. During his gubernatorial run last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom paid Waters’ campaign $52,000 for help getting his name out. 

Just as Waters’ challengers don’t have much reason to spend money on election-related expenses — as they have little chance of winning — Waters has few incentives to seriously campaign for her safe seat. 

The Los Angeles Democrat hasn’t come within shouting distance of losing in her 15-term career. And as the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, Waters gets an influx of PAC contributions, which make up 59 percent of her fundraising. Small donors are almost nonexistent, making up less than 5 percent of Waters’ campaign cash. 

Waters received a green light to pay her daughter in a 2004 advisory opinion from the FEC. Since the 2002 cycle, the Waters campaign has paid Karen Waters and her affiliated firm nearly $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission data. 

The campaign has made other large expenditures, such as $19,315 at a Los Angeles hotel for a Christmas party and $10,747 for tickets to “Hamilton”. Waters’ campaign treasurer didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Lavish campaign living is legal

The FEC prohibits candidates from using campaign funds for personal use. But that prohibition only extends to spending that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s status as a candidate or public officeholder. 

“The kind of expenses we pay on an everyday basis, such as rent, mortgage, utilities, you can’t use campaign funds for,” said Brett Kappel, an election lawyer at Akerman LLP. “Living the high life, traveling, living at five-star hotels, going to four-star restaurants, that’s all legal.”

Candidates can shell out large amounts of money at expensive restaurants if they can make the case that the money is being spent to facilitate fundraisers. 

“When you’re soliciting money from people who are wealthy, they expect to be wined and dined at nice places,” Kappel said. 

On Waters’ end, paying family members for legitimate campaign services is also legal, as long as they have the proper credentials, Kappel said. And Navarro is allowed to pay himself a salary. In fact, it’s not uncommon that candidates pay themselves or family members with campaign funds.  

Members of Congress, especially safe members with little reason to seriously campaign, often spend campaign cash generously. But candidate campaigns aren’t the most fertile ground for those aiming to send donor money straight to their own pockets. Instead, they use PACs and super PACs that face fewer regulations. 

Former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina moved her campaign money to an affiliated super PAC, which began spending big on Uber rides, furniture and hair styling. One-time dark horse Democratic presidential candidate Michael Avenatti started a PAC to “fight back” against Trump but ended up giving much of its money to himself. 

So-called scam PACs are on the rise in the Trump era, with groups raking in millions in the name of supporting the president while spending next to nothing to actually boost Trump.

As state attorneys general crack down on scam charities, some of those charity operators are moving into the world of political committees to line their pockets with donor money. 

The “personal use” prohibition for candidate campaigns does not apply to PACs and super PACs, an exemption that FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub unsuccessfully proposed changing in 2016. 

Meanwhile, the FEC, the agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance law and updating its own rules, is gutted and unable to conduct meetings. And as it is up to Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime opponent of the FEC, to restore the commission, it may remain paralyzed for the foreseeable future. 

“I just don’t see how they get a functioning commission until after the election,” Kappel said. 

Researcher Andrew Mayersohn contributed to this report.

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