Former Sen. Evan Bayh moved his namesake charitable foundation’s address in 2011 to the Washington D.C. K Street law firm he joined shortly after leaving the Senate, tax documents reveal.
Bayh, who is running for his old U.S. Senate seat in Indiana, is facing questions over his decision to remain in Washington, DC, and join the law firm McGuireWoods instead of returning to Indiana. While the former senator and governor has insisted he maintained ties to Indiana after left Congress, a CNN report published on Monday showed Bayh listed his DC home as his primary residence on several documents.
Tax documents for the Evan and Susan Bayh Foundation from before Bayh left the Senate in January 2011 list an Indianapolis address used by the foundation’s tax preparer Baker and Daniels LLP. Baker and Daniels was still listed as the tax preparer for 2011, but the address of the foundation was listed as McGuireWoods. Since 2012, the tax records have been prepared by an Virginia-based accountant.
The foundation was founded in 2002 with money remaining from Bayh's Indiana gubernatorial campaigns.
Donations from Bayh’s foundation also show his deep connections to Washington, with most grant money going to St. Alban's School of Public Service, a month-long summer program at the elite DC private school for kids around the country interested in government. The program has a financial aid fund for those who could otherwise not attend the school.
A spokesperson for Bayh didn't comment on the address change, but said the donations to St. Albans School of Public Service went to support underprivileged children attending the program.
"Evan Bayh is a proud fifth-generation Hoosier, and has used his foundation to support students who couldn't otherwise afford to attend the St. Albans School of Public Service."
Between leaving the Senate in 2011 and 2014, years overlapping with his sons’ high school attendance, Bayh’s foundation gave $42,068 to St. Alban’s School of Public Service and $47,200 combined to a handful of other charities, including $4,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The foundation gave more money to the school summer program most years during this timeframe than it did to any other single organization. In 2014, the foundation's largest donation was to the Indiana University Foundation.
In 2014, the foundation also gave $3,500 to Friends of Harvard, Bayh’s twins’ new school.
Also between 2006 and 2010, St. Albans received $50,000 of the $144,000 the foundation doled out. The school was its largest beneficiary in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
In 2004 and 2005, the foundation gave just $1,500 to the St. Albans School, with the $55,000 going to the Indiana National Guard Relief Fund in those two years. Nothing was given in grants during the first two years grants of the foundation's existence. The charity has assets of hundreds of thousands of dollars.