[muawiyah]

Ordinarily candidates have to drop their principal occupations while campaigning ~ hence, it's generally legal to draw a salary and have expenses reimbursed by the campaign out of campaign donations.

That's not cheating. Otherwise only the very rich would be able to run for office.

[AuH2ORepublican]

It is not illegal for a candidate to pay himself a salary (with campaign money) while campaigning, but it is very rare. What is illegal is for a candidate *not* to pay himself a salary with campaign money (so as not to have to pay income tax) but then claim phony “reimbursements” in order to use campaign funds for personal use. From the information in the article, Maes did the latter.

Maes appears to be a liar and a conman, and I hope that Colorado conservatives don’t throw the election to the ultraliberal Democrat John Hickenlooper by voting for Maes instead of for Tom Tancredo.