We’ve all heard it: The siren song of a Steam sale. It lures us closer, with the promise of a dozen games for dirt cheap, and when you wake up, your wallet is empty and your pile of shame is a foot longer. So in that way, Duncan Hunter may be much like the rest of us. But we don’t have campaign funds to dip into to buy that Sega bundle.
Hunter, who you might remember vapes on the House floor, listed $1,302 in Steam games as a campaign expense, although at least he noted it was a personal expense and he was going to pay it back. Hunter claims his son used his credit card to buy a game and then Hunter racked up a bunch of charges trying to close his son’s Steam account, which may mark the first time Valve’s notoriously bad customer service has been used as a political scapegoat.
The problem, as you might have guessed, is that the FEC is pretty strict about using campaign funds for personal expenses, and Steam games undeniably count as such. That means Hunter has to pay the money back and likely will need to explain why it went missing in the first place, even if he did slot an IOU in there. It’s a bit of a shame as Hunter is one of the few politicians who thinks blaming video games for social ills is a waste of time. Hopefully he can get it straightened out, but if not, he can at least take solace in this: No matter what happens, he’s far better than Leland Yee.