"...Delahunt’s failure to prosecute Amy Bishop after she shot and killed her brother in 1986 came back to haunt him this year when now-Professor Bishop shot and murdered three colleagues..."
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U.S. Rep. William Delahunt blew nearly $560,000 in campaign cash last year - much of it on lavish meals and a family-friendly payroll that includes his ex-wife, son-in-law and daughter - stoking speculation the Quincy Democrat is emptying his war chest and won’t seek re-election.

Nickolai Bobrov, who is married to Delahunt’s daughter Kara, has raked in $47,732 since landing on the payroll as the congressman’s campaign manager in July, including a $10,000 payment that month marked retroactive for “consulting services April-July,” according to campaign finance records.

Bobrov also is listed as treasurer of Delahunt’s Campaign for Change political action committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Kara Delahunt, who recently bought a $620,000 Milton manse with Bobrov, pocketed hundreds in campaign cash as a “freelance photographer,” records show. Delahunt’s PAC also paid her $421 for photography services last month.

Katharina Delahunt, the congressman’s ex-wife, pulled in $48,000 as a receptionist and executive assistant for the campaign, a position she’s held full-time since 2005, records show.

Delahunt, 68, also has dished out sizable sums on expensive meals, including more than $3,000 at Quincy’s Alba Bar and Grill in the first quarter of 2009, and another $7,000 for a confab at the upscale eatery in July.

All told, Delahunt’s campaign committee doled out $558,354 last year, leaving his war chest with less than $570,000, records show. The seven-term congressman raised a paltry $42,000 last year.

Delahunt spokesman Mark Forest said Bobrov is “excellent” at what he does. “He’s a great guy,” Forest said. “Everything is totally proper. Totally legal.”

As for Kara Delahunt, she is “a freelance photographer with an established business, hired for her creative expertise to document events,” Delahunt campaign treasurer Thomas Kiley wrote to the Federal Election Commission last year.

Delahunt told the Herald last week that he was still weighing whether to seek re-election, but Democratic Party sources have privately indicated his departure is anticipated - and expected to draw a host of candidates-in-waiting out of the woodwork.

Tory Mazzola, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, blasted Delahunt’s big-spending ways.

“It’s this type of unaccountability in government that allows career politicians like Bill Delahunt to get away with such a partisan record,” he said. “If he decides to put this high-dollar family campaign staff to use this cycle, we plan to hold him accountable.”