FEC Democrats Say Bush Violated Campaign Limits; Owes Government $40 million

FEC Democrats Say Bush Violated Limits

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2007; A15

The three Democrats on the Federal Election Commission revealed yesterday that they strongly believe President Bush exceeded legal spending limits during the 2004 presidential contest and that his campaign owes the government $40 million.

Their concerns spilled out during a vote to approve an audit of the Bush campaign's finances, which is conducted to make sure the campaign adhered to spending rules after accepting $74.6 million in public money for the 2004 general election.

Republican commissioners defended the way the Bush campaign billed the cost of more than $80 million in television ads, which were the source of the dispute.

The commission by statute comprises three Democrats and three Republicans. Commissioner Michael E. Toner, a Republican, resigned March 14, but the vote was taken before his departure. Because of the deadlock, the objections were recorded in a footnote to the audit but will not result in any sanctions or repayment.

"We had a disagreement on this audit, and it was a doozy," said one of the Democrats, Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub.

The dispute centered on the use of what the commissioners called "hybrid" ads, which were intended to promote both the president and Republican members of Congress. The Bush campaign argued that it should not bear the full cost of these ads, so it split the tab with the Republican Party.

As a result, only half of the cost would count toward spending limits imposed on the campaign when it agreed to take public funds. Weintraub said the spending limit is an essential part of the agreement candidates make to accept public financing. "Bush-Cheney 2004 took the $74 million, and then they broke the bargain," she said.

Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky, a Republican, strongly disagreed. "There was no broken bargain," he said. "There was no violation of the law."

Resignation Of Lawyers At FEC Raises Concern

By Matthew Mosk

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 18, 2007; A21

The announcement yesterday that the top two lawyers for the Federal Election Commission had resigned helped spread an undercurrent of concern about the diminishing role of a once-prominent public voice on the intersection of money and politics.

The stated reasons for the departures of FEC General Counsel Lawrence H. Norton and Deputy General Counsel James A. Kahl was that the two men had landed private-sector jobs at a large firm with offices in six states. Norton and Kahl, reached yesterday, said their resignations were not intended to send any broader message.

But those who monitor campaign finance law with some dedication said the departures coincided with a perceived shift in the way the commissioners have worked with the general counsel.

Paul S. Ryan, a lawyer who monitors the FEC for the Campaign Legal Center, said the general counsel was once free to opine publicly about pressing policy matters but that has not been the preference of the commissioners as of late.

"The influence of the general counsel has clearly been diminishing," Ryan said. The commissioners "no longer seek the general counsel's opinion publicly with respect to answering difficult questions of law."

Lawrence M. Noble, who served as general counsel for 13 years before leaving the FEC in 2001, said he has noticed the same trend, though he did not know if it contributed in any way to his successor's departure.

"It's fair to say the commissioners are looking less to the general counsel for policy advice than they may have previously," Noble said. "What we've seen, in certain areas, is that the general counsel's office is not coming up with recommendations as it once had, at least not publicly."

That shift, if it in fact is occurring, comes at a time when the agency will handle some vexing policy matters, including the continuing implementation of the 2002 campaign finance reforms, a persistent debate over the activities of independent groups and oversight of a presidential election that is expected to test the outer bounds of fundraising limits.

FEC Chairman Robert D. Lenhard said the commissioners, and the general counsel, will approach all of those matters in the same way they always have. He has not seen "much of a pattern or trend or evolution in the role there."

Some of those who put the FEC under a microscope "are reading too much into a couple of different cases," Lenhard said. "The general counsel is free to speak his mind in open session and in executive session."

One case under that microscope, Ryan said, examined whether political parties could raise and spend unlimited amounts of campaign money on recount drives.

When the parties asked the FEC in 2002 and 2004 to allow them to spend money that way, Ryan said, Norton's public comments opposing the idea persuaded the parties to withdraw their requests. In 2006, though, Norton made no recommendation, and the parties persevered, brokering a deal with the FEC on the issue, Ryan said.

"To me, it was an obvious sign that the general counsel was no longer being allowed to recommend a course of action," Ryan said.

Norton and Kahl dispute this analysis of why they resigned.

"I'm not shocked people would read that into our decision, but it has nothing to do with it," Kahl said.

He and Norton said they are leaving together to give the firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice a sizeable footprint in the fast-changing area of campaign finance law.

"I've had as free a hand as ever to give the commission unvarnished advice," Norton said. "I have had ample authority, all the authority I need."

Big FEC fines soon to hit Swift Boat Vets, other '527' groups

FEC Likely to Fine Several 527 Groups
By Matthew Murray
Roll Call Staff
December 11, 2006

Just in time for the 2008 presidential campaign season and roughly two years after the agency began scrutinizing a handful of 527 organizations, the Federal Election Commission is likely to hand down significant fines in the near future against groups such as America Coming Together and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, according to campaign finance lawyers and other experts.

Agency officials and outsiders directly involved in the cases declined to discuss specifics of the investigations, citing confidentiality agreements and prohibitions against discussing ongoing enforcement matters. Still, many familiar with the cases’ issues, including the top lawyer for Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) 2004 campaign and a former commission chairman, suggested that a variety of factors point to the likelihood that the agency will soon “sock it” to 527 organizations that violated campaign finance laws, particularly those involved in the 2004 presidential cycle.

“They don’t have a lot of choice,” said Marc Elias, a Democratic campaign finance lawyer who worked for the Kerry campaign. “It’s been two years that they’ve had these cases and they have indicated publicly that the enforcement process is the way” the agency prefers to police 527 groups.

While agency officials were unable to indicate the status of ongoing investigations, they were able to confirm a number of organizations when asked about specific groups that complaints had been filed against, perhaps narrowing the field of potential cases that may be closed out in the weeks to come. Among those cited as being the subject of complaints were Texans for Truth, Progress for America Voter Fund, Leadership Forum, the Media Fund, the Joint Victory Campaign, Economic Freedom Fund and Majority Action.