Scott Brown Campaign Pays Daughter Ayla To Perform At His Events

The campaign of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has paid his daughter, Ayla, and her musical groups $9,500 since December 2010 to play at campaign-related events.

Ayla, the older of Brown's two daughters, is a former American Idol semifinalist who has branched out with a musical career of her own. Compensation for her participation at her father's campaign events is legal according to federal election law, though the statute also allows for her to volunteer her services.

The Boston Globe reports:

The Brown campaign could not say what portion of the performance fees went to Ayla Brown and how much went to those they described as her bandmates. Nor could it say how many people played in her backup band.

But the campaign said in a statement that it paid Ayla Brown in part to avoid putting those bandmates in an awkward situation, by asking them to volunteer at a political event.

"Everything was done properly and in full compliance with [Federal Election Commission] regulations," campaign manager Jim Barnett said in a statement. "It is far more impractical to sort out any individual band member's relatively small cut of the compensation and reimbursement than to simply pay the band the fair market value for their services. It would have been entirely inappropriate to suggest to other band members that they donate their professional services to the father of their lead singer."

Politico provides the specifics on the payments to Brown's daughter and her bandmates, filed in his FEC reports:

The Brown campaign made three payments to Ambient Entertainment, the company that represents Ayla Brown, since the end of 2010 -- $5,000 on Dec. 3, 2010, $500 on Oct. 5, 2011 and $4,000 on Dec. 7, 2011, for a grand total of $9,500, according to 2010 and 2011 FEC filings.

Brown's daughters have been put in the spotlight by their father before on the campaign trail, perhaps most memorably -- and awkwardly -- during his victory speech when he proudly announced that they were both "available."

Soon after that, a picture of Brown and his daughters decked out in their finest Hawaiian-wear surfaced on the internet.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[treasuredtrophie]

10:07 AM on 02/04/2012

The left media bored or what? Why don't you bring up all the money OB has wasted in the last 3 years.

[jostotx]

02:43 AM on 02/04/2012

She's a professional singer who got a gig. Where's the problem? Must be a slow news day.

[cohoes42072]

11:21 PM on 02/03/2012

So? More pointless than this story was the ol' Scott Brown 'stripped down' clip below it. Is this news HuffPo or character assassination? Seems more like a slime piece.

[jockmama]

01:11 AM on 02/04/2012

It would be "character assassination" if he hadn't actually DONE it. Baggage is, as baggage does (as the Newtmeister has discovered).

[biged242]

03:32 AM on 02/04/2012

Actually, it's Scotty who is the "slime piece". If Obama paid his daughters to perform for pay at campaign events, the 'baggers would poop themselves with rage.

[Abigail Von Normal]

12:43 PM on 02/15/2012

And his supporters would defend him.
Something like this is only a big deal to opponents.

[343Guiltyspark]

10:53 PM on 02/03/2012

"But the campaign said in a statement that it paid Ayla Brown in part to avoid putting those bandmates in an awkward situation, by asking them to volunteer at a political event."

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, and I'm a liberal and been a big Warren fan before she even got involved with TARP. I just don't see a story here.

[Dr Danno]

10:05 PM on 02/03/2012

Hey ,she is a cute kid. She could do better by teaming up with the real mind in the contest.

[abruin]

09:42 PM on 02/03/2012

pelosi spent 1000 dollars a wk. of taxpayer dollars to stock her bar on her oversized jet to fly to washington every weekend. ..........so your point?

[jockmama]

01:15 AM on 02/04/2012

And how much did President Sock Puppet cost American taxpayers, flying down to Texas in Air Force One every other weekend to "clear brush"....???

Oh, and where's your reference on the Pelosi thing? Faux "News"?

[jostotx]

02:42 AM on 02/04/2012

And how much did Obama spend to take his entourage to Hawaii? God, we could go on forever.

[gted1954]

05:59 AM on 02/04/2012

jockmama, President Sock Puppet? That's a good one. That deserves an F&F. I've always said Cheney was the real President. I wonder how much it cost keeping him in his "secure, undisclosed location" for 8 years?

[Tom Rugg]

09:40 PM on 02/03/2012

Okay you missed.

[abruin]

09:40 PM on 02/03/2012

so?

[DeTex]

09:34 PM on 02/03/2012

Everybody, just cut the young lady some slack. It's enough of a personal burden for her to have a stripper as her role model.

[CoronaDischarge]

09:26 PM on 02/03/2012

After she can no longer get gigs, when the people of Massachusetts retire him from Washington to Wrentham, will his daughter's career retrace the arc of his own and include some work at Playboy?

[charlie53]

09:00 PM on 02/03/2012

Ole scott brown has proven himself to be obama's lackie and mass'es new teddy kennedy

[mikedavid1]

08:24 PM on 02/03/2012

So he should get and pay someone else to perform? Why am I not understanding that this is important information we need to know? ....in other words, so what!

[smburwick]

07:57 PM on 02/03/2012

So what?

[Bob Macfarlane]

07:34 PM on 02/03/2012

So?

[Imago]

07:31 PM on 02/03/2012

Not a fan of Brown but truly am mystified why anyone would care about this...