Campaigns Cited for Failure To File Pre-Primary Report

Provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act require committees supporting candidates involved in the primary to file reports of their financial activity 12 days before the election.

As of 5 p.m. , May 31, 2002 disclosure reports from the following committees had not been filed:

AL/01....GORDON FOR CONGRESS...FELICIA SIGLER, TREAS...JAMES O. GORDON...DEM

MS/01....FRIENDS OF ROGER WICKER 2002...JOHN P. NAIL, TREAS...ROGER F. WICKER...REP

MT..........MONTANA FOR JOHNSON...CHRIS BAKWIN, TREAS...BRADLEY S. JOHNSON...REP

NJ/07.....ROSS FOR CONGRESS...VERONICA MCLEOD, TREAS...TYRONE C. ROSS...DEM

NM/02..COMMITTEE FOR ANDY KISSNER...LARRY DOWNUM, TREAS...JON A. KISSNER...REP

The reports were to include financial activity occurring from April 1 through May 15. If sent by certified or registered mail, the reports should have been postmarked by May 20. Otherwise, the due date was close-of-business May 23. Mandatory electronic filing requirements became effective as of January 1, 2001. Any committee required to file with the FEC that receives contributions or makes expenditures in excess of $50,000 in the current calendar year, or that reasonably expects to do so, must submit its reports electronically. These rules became effective for reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2001.

Some individuals and their committees have no obligation to file reports under federal election law, even though their names may appear on state ballots. If an individual raises or spends less than $5,000, he or she is not considered a "candidate" subject to reporting under the FECA.

The FEC notified committees involved in the primary of their potential filing requirements on April 29. Those committees which did not file on the due date were notified on May 24 that reports had not been received and that their names would be published if they did not respond within four business days.

Other political committees supporting Senate and House candidates in elections (those which are not authorized units of a candidate''''s campaign) also are required to file pre-primary reports, unless they report monthly. Those committee names are not published by the FEC.

Further Commission action against non-filers and late filers is decided on a case-by-case basis. Federal law gives the FEC broad authority to initiate enforcement actions and the FEC has implemented a new administrative fine program which will subject committees to penalties ranging from $125 to $16,000 or more.

The next regularly scheduled disclosure reports for these candidate committees will be the quarterly report, due July 15, 2002. It will cover activity from May 16 through June 30.