Zoe Lofgren’s use of staffers to squash Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s resolution may violate the Hatch Act

Rep. Zoe Lofgren has been using federally funded staffers to improperly engage in local politics.

Last year, when the San Jose City Council began to consider a resolution supporting the affirmation of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe‘s federal status, Lofgren had her taxpayer-funded staffers call City Council members to pressure them to drop their support of the resolution.

Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh had met with each of the Council members privately, and nearly every single official explicitly endorsed the resolution in those private meetings.  That was until just weeks later when Lofgren’s staffers began frantically hounding the members of the Council who were most supportive of the resolution.

The Council members relented, and have left the resolution — which initially enjoyed support from nearly every single member of the Council — in a perpetual state of limbo.  On August 7th, the City Council’s Government Organization and Rules Committee again delayed consideration of the Resolution for another month — at the last-minute request of Lofgren.

Lofgren made the request using official letterhead, despite it being campaign-motivated.  Lofgren submitted the letter to the Committee in the wee hours of the morning that the Resolution was expected to advance to the full Council.  It amounts to using the official seal of Congress for politics.

At the time the resolution was originally being discussed last summer, Nijmeh had been openly considering a run for Congress and Lofgren was irate.  Lofgren demanded that her staffers play hardball with Nijmeh — even during business hours and from her Capitol Hill office — which would violate the federal Hatch Act.  That law outlaws the use of federal resources for political purposes.

Lofgren is accused of using her staffers to lobby another government, not as a matter of performing her duties as a congresswoman, but instead motivated for campaign purposes.

“If Lofgren wants to hire lobbyists to prevent the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe from being recognized, she should incur that expense personally.  Stepping on a marginalized tribe — or any municipal resolution on any subject matter — is not a proper function of a congressional office.  It’s a misuse of taxpayers’ money,” explains Charlene Nijmeh

A member of Congress cannot use their taxpayer-funded staffers to engage in political activities,  and lobbying another government is entirely outside of their job description and their proper role.  The proper role of a member of Congress is to legislate, not to lobby other governments.