Checkered Financial Past Dogs Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell in Senate Bid

Sept. 15, 2010— -- Allegations of a checkered financial past were not enough to keep Christine O'Donnell from a surprise victory in Tuesday's Republican Senate primary in Delaware. But as the Tea-Party-backed candidate enters the general election and the national spotlight, the trickle of accusations, from unpaid student debts and income taxes to IRS liens and improperly used campaign funds, has become a steady stream.

O'Donnell, a former marketing executive and conservative pundit, has twice before run for Senate and lost, leaving in her wake a lengthy paper trail. Her defeat of Mike Castle, a longtime Republican congressman heavily favored to win, has earned her enemies in both the Democratic and Republican parties, all of whom are digging into her financial history looking for mud to sling.

Just before voters went to go the polls, Delaware residents received a robocall, paid for by the state's Republican party. It was a recorded message from O'Donnell's 2008 campaign manager, Kristin Murray, alleging that O'Donnell "was living on campaign donations -- using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt. She wasn't concerned about conservative causes. O'Donnell just wanted to make a buck."

Those were the most recent in a string of accusations that suggest financial irresponsibility dating back to O'Donnell's graduation from college and first campaigns.

O'Donnell raised eyebrows with one of her first acts as a new candidate, when she officially disclosed her finances. In a Senate financial disclosure report from July, O'Donnell reported just $5,800 in earned income between March 2009 and July 2010. She says she worked for two companies, one a marketing firm and the other a conservative political action committee.

According to Federal Election Commission data, O'Donnell contributed $3,026 of her own money, or more than half her reported "earned income" to her campaign.

In interviews, O'Donnell has said she earned more than that $5,800 but was not required to disclose it. "The only thing they can use against me is that I'm not a multimillionaire," she told the Weekly Standard before the election.

That answer falls short for some ethics watchdogs – and voters.

"Every candidate should at the minimum follow the law. If the public has questions beyond that, questions about a candidate's private interest that could have ties to her public work, it helps that they go beyond the minimum required d by law. She needs to provide additional details," said Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.

O'Donnell rose to national attention in the 1990s as a social conservative, appearing on shows like Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" to campaign against pornography and masturbation.

As her political star began to rise, public documents show, so too did a string of financial issues.