The debt collector representing the City of National City is suing US Senator Bernie Sanders’ failed Presidential campaign for the money it owes from a campaign rally in May of 2016. National City Mayor Ron Morrison said the Senator now owes more than $31,000 because of late fees.
“There’s nothing political about this,” said Mayor Morrison. “There’s nothing else. We’re not looking for publicity out of this thing. We would love for the thing to go away. Just pay their bill and go away.”
National City hosted the rally in Kimball Park for the Democratic candidate but I could not use taxpayer money to pay for the event. Morrison said it’s against the law to use taxpayer money to support any candidate or ballot initiative. He said the $28,000 covers the overtime National City had to pay its employees for the event.
“We had to bring in all of our police officers, off duty, detectives, everything else, bring them all in uniform. We had to have public works come in on a weekend to do all this stuff,” said the Mayor. “They very well have the money to pay it and so that’s why it’s kind of puzzling. They’ve got these few small bills out there. Why they haven’t paid them off?”
10News has covered this story three times during the last 15 months. Only once did a campaign official respond to our questions. Last January, a staffer said the US Secret Service would foot the bill. A Secret Service spokesman told 10News the Secret Service said the campaign is responsible for those charges. Mayor Morrison agreed.
“These are expenses that are always paid by the campaign,” he said. “The government can’t pick them up.”
