RICHMOND, Va. -- Rep. W.C. Daniel, D-Va., admitted in a published interview Tuesday that he unwittingly violated expense reporting rules for which he is being investigated by a House panel but said he will still run for re-election.
Daniel, under fire for accepting airplane trips from defense contractors and billing the government for car mileage on the same journeys, announced Sunday he will run in November for a 10th term in Congress.
'No, I won't be vindicated, because two of the rules of the House were unintentionally violated,' Daniel said in an interview published in The Richmond News Leader.
Daniel, 71, a Democrat, is being investigated by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. A senior member of the House Armed Service Committee, Daniel supported legislation for the Pentagon to spend $57 million to buy 24 Super King turboprop planes.
The aircraft is made by Beechcraft, which provided Daniel with free flights from Washington to his Danville home.
'The decision to promote the plane certainly was not a conflict of interests,' Daniel told the newspaper. 'It actually saved the taxpayers bundles of money.'
Passenger and light cargo planes would be more economical than jets, he said.
The House Ethics Committee recently widened its investigation on Daniel's vote on the C-12 to include his mileage expense practices.
While he accepted Beechcraft flights, Daniel said he billed the government for mileage accumulated when his wife drove their car between Washington and their Danville home.
Daniel said any violation of House rules was 'unintentional.'
The decision to run for another House term is not an attempt to vindicate himself in the ethics investigation, Daniel said.
Daniel served 10 years in the state House of Delegates before he successfully ran for Congress in 1968. He has been unopposed since 1970.
But rumblings from Republicans indicate Daniel may face opposition in November.
Max Graeber, a University of Richmond political science professor who chairs the 5th District Republican Party, filed papers with a federal agency indicating he would form a campaign committee to run for Daniel's seat.
