Raul Labrador Puttin’ on the Ritz
Idaho freshman Rep. Raul Labrador (R) got an accommodations upgrade when he returned to Washington during recess to tape NBC’s “Meet the Press,” trading his office for a room at the Ritz-Carlton.
Instead of crashing on his office couch, as he has since coming to Capitol Hill, Labrador rested in comfort on one of the Ritz’s “plush feather beds” with a “down comforter with duvet and luxurious 400 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets,” as described on the luxury hotel’s website.
Labrador told the Spokesman-Review in February that he hadn’t rented a home in Washington, D.C., since joining Congress because he flies home to see his family in Idaho each weekend.
“I want to make sure they still have those Idaho roots,” Labrador told the paper of his teenage children, saying the arrangement would continue for the next two years if he is re-elected.
Still, sometimes it’s nice to get away.
The one-night stay at the Ritz on April 4 cost NBC $400 and the travel tab to bring Labrador back to D.C. ran about $255, according to Congressional travel records given to Roll Call by the website LegiStorm.
Labrador was part of a roundtable discussion on the role of religion in American politics that “Meet the Press” aired April 8.