MUR 5702: Colorado Democratic Party

The Commission entered into a conciliation agreement with the Colorado Democratic Party (CDP) to settle violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) discovered during a Commission audit of the CDP following the 2002 election. CDP agreed to pay a civil penalty of $105,000.

Background

In September 2005, the Commission approved the final audit of CDP for the 2002 election cycle. The audit showed that CDP had a total of $2,049,010 in misreported receipts and disbursements on reports filed with the Commission in 2001 and 2002, which also resulted in the cash-on-hand balances being misreported. The CDP also violated the Act by accepting a $10,000 prohibited contribution and overpaying $8,888 from its nonfederal account for shared federal and nonfederal allocable expenses.

Conciliation agreement

CDP agreed to pay a civil penalty of $105,000 and transfer $8,888 from its federal account to its nonfederal account to offset the overpayment by the nonfederal account. The agreement also noted that CDP had amended its reports.