Is a serious presidential candidate supposed to be seeking paid speeches while running a campaign?

Regardless of the ethics involved, Wall Street Journal reporter Reid Epstein tweeted an email that appears to be from Lisa McFadden with Leading Authorities, Inc. — a speaker’s bureau.

It reads in part:

Hi (redacted),

I wanted to send you a quick, private note about Carly Fiorina. Though she maintains an active campaign calendar, she has limited availability for speaking engagements. …

We don’t advertise Carly on the Leading Authorities website, but if you have an interest in booking her for an upcoming meeting or event, please let me know and I’d be happy to share her availability and fees.

The fact that a candidate is seemingly turning a campaign for president into a money-making venture wouldn’t be unprecedented for the 2016 race.

Ben Carson recently announced he would be leaving the campaign trail for two weeks to hold a book tour.

The Huffington Post reported earlier this month:

According to ABC News, Carson has put his public campaign events on hold to focus on fundraising events and stops to promote his new book, A More Perfect Union. He is scheduled to hold book signings next week in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

Carson’s last public event was a health care town hall meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 2. He will not appear at a public campaign event again until the next Republican presidential debate in Boulder, Colorado, on Oct. 28.

Carson’s campaign staff will not travel with him while he’s on his book tour to avoid the unsavory image that he’s using his presidential bid to make money, a spokesman told ABC. But there are legal issues at hand, too. Federal law prohibits candidates from using campaign resources to profit personally.

In Fiorina’s case, Epstein writes an executive with Leading Authorities declined to discuss Fiorina’s fees or schedule.

“There’s a number of people that we work with who are happy to entertain speaking engagements but aren’t for whatever reason being publicly promoted,” Leading Authorities COO Matthew Jones tells the Journal. “It’s not at all uncommon that they continue to do this while they run.”