Week of November 15-19, 2021

Commission meetings and hearings

No open meetings or executive sessions were scheduled this week.

Enforcement

The Commission made public five closed cases, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

MUR 7062

COMPLAINANT: Glen Shaffer
RESPONDENTS: Ro for Congress and Linda Sell, in her official capacity as treasurer (the Committee); Ro Khanna; RevUp Software, Inc. (RevUp); Steve Spinner; and Numero, Inc.
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that RevUp violated the sale and use provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the Act), because it sold fundraising software that incorporated information taken from the Commission’s database of reports filed by political committees. The complaint further alleged that the Committee and Khanna, a 2016 candidate for California’s 17th Congressional District, violated the same provision by using the RevUp software for the purpose of soliciting contributions.
DISPOSITION: On April 11, 2019, the Commission found reason to believe that RevUp and the Committee violated the sale and use provision of the Act. The Commission voted to close the file with respect to Spinner, who was both the CEO of RevUp and the Committee’s campaign chair. On June 24, 2021, the Commission voted to take no further action with respect to the apparent violation by RevUp, which had dissolved during the course of the Commission’s investigation. Numero, Inc. subsequently purchased RevUp’s brand name and technology including its algorithm, which uses FEC data to score and rank contacts based on their likelihood of making a contribution, and Numero added RevUp’s scoring and ranking technology as a feature within its own fundraising software product. Numero was subsequently added as a respondent in this matter. The Commission entered into a conciliation agreement providing for the Committee to pay a civil penalty of $16,000. The Commission closed the file.

MUR 7406

COMPLAINANT: Nevada State Democratic Party by Alana Mounce, Executive Director
RESPONDENT: Heller for Senate and Chrissie Hastie, in her official capacity as treasurer (the Committee)
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that the Committee failed to disgorge to the U.S. Treasury $27,500 in prohibited contributions it received from Cancer Treatment Centers of America Global, Inc. (CTCA) in connection with a previous FEC enforcement matter, MUR 7248. In that matter, the Commission found reason to believe that CTCA violated the Act by making prohibited corporate contributions and contributions in the name of another when it reimbursed with corporate funds the political contributions of its executives. As part of the resolution of MUR 7248, CTCA notified recipient committees, including Heller for Senate, that they had received certain illegal contributions that they were required to disgorge to the U.S. Treasury.
DISPOSITION: The Commission found reason to believe that the Committee failed to disgorge improper campaign contributions within 30 days of discovering that they came from a prohibited source, thereby knowingly accepting corporate contributions made in the name of another. The Commission entered into a conciliation agreement providing for the Committee to 1) pay a civil penalty of $10,000; and 2) disgorge $27,500 to the U.S. Treasury.

MUR 7578

COMPLAINANT: Campaign Legal Center and Margaret Christ
RESPONDENTS: FAIRPAC (f/k/a John Linder for Congress) and Matthew John Linder, in his official capacity as treasurer (FAIRPAC); and John Linder
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that former Representative John Linder of Georgia, who retired from Congress in 2011, impermissibly converted to personal use funds that were originally contributed to his former campaign committee, which was converted to a multi-candidate political committee named FAIRPAC in 2014.
DISPOSITION: The Commission dismissed the allegations. The Commission observed that payments from FAIRPAC to Linder’s children appeared to be for bona fide services to FAIRPAC and the record contained no information to suggest that the payments were excessive, and that payments for Linder’s travel and lodging expenses appeared to be permissible as they were undertaken for the FAIRPAC’s activities and the available information did not indicate that the trips were for taken Linder’s personal benefit. In addition, the Commission observed that payments for internet services and other expenses recited in the complaint appeared to be permissible as ordinary and necessary expenses related to FAIRPAC’s activities. The Commission further observed that while certain other payments related to attendance at an event hosted by the Chowder & Marching Club appeared to constitute impermissible personal use, the payments at issue were made outside of the applicable five-year statute of limitation period. Chair Shana M. Broussard and Commissioners Steven T. Walther and Ellen L. Weintraub issued a Statement of Reasons.

MUR 7846

COMPLAINANT: Campaign Legal Center
RESPONDENTS: Amedisys, Inc.; Senate Leadership Fund and Caleb Crosby, in his official capacity as treasurer (SLF)
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that Amedisys, Inc., a federal contractor, impermissibly made a contribution to SLF, a federal political committee.
DISPOSITION: The Commission exercised its prosecutorial discretion and dismissed the complaint. The Commission observed that the federal contracts that Amedisys, Inc. held were small in value.

MUR 7927

COMPLAINANT: Self-Reported
RESPONDENTS: Kennedy for Massachusetts and Keith D. Lowey, in his official capacity as treasurer (the Committee)
SUBJECT: The Committee filed a sua sponte submission stating that it spent $1,502,000 in general election funds for primary election expenses on behalf of candidate Joseph P. Kennedy, III, a 2020 candidate for Massachusetts’s U.S. Senate seat. Kennedy lost the primary. Although the Committee did not have sufficient cash on hand to account for the general election contributions, it timely refunded the contributions after Kennedy infused personal funds into the Committee’s accounts shortly after his loss.
DISPOSITION: The Commission found reason to believe that the Committee accepted excessive contributions and entered into a conciliation agreement providing for the Committee to pay a civil penalty of $35,000. Commissioner Sean J. Cooksey issued a Statement of Reasons.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

The Commission made public two closed cases, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

ADR 1034

COMPLAINANT: FEC-Initiated
RESPONDENT: Stop Socialism Now PAC and Jason D. Boles, Treasurer
SUBJECT: In the normal course of exercising its supervisory responsibilities, the Commission initiated proceedings to determine whether there was reason to believe the Committee failed to timely file a 48-Hour Report totaling $64,047.50 to support two independent expenditures disclosed on the 2020 12-Day Pre-Runoff Report.
DISPOSITION: The Committee agreed to 1) certify that a representative participated in an FEC training program and 2) pay a civil penalty of $3,200.

ADR 1039
COMPLAINANT: FEC-Initiated
RESPONDENT: Garret Graves for Congress and Christel Slaughter, Treasurer
SUBJECT: In the normal course of exercising its supervisory responsibilities, the Commission initiated proceedings to determine whether there was reason to believe the Committee failed to timely refund or redesignate contributions in excess of the limit totaling $19,000 and received prohibited contributions totaling $16,800 during the 2020 election cycle.
DISPOSITION: The Committee agreed to 1) certify that a representative participated in an FEC training program and 2) pay a civil penalty of $2,700.

Litigation

Anna Paulina Luna for Congress v. FEC (Case No. 21-1213) On November 15, Plaintiff and the Commission filed a Joint Stipulation of Dismissal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, et al. (Case No. 21-12) On November 15, the Commission filed a Brief in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Giffords v. FEC (Case No. 19-1192) On November 17, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered Final Judgment in favor of Plaintiff.

Outreach

On November 16 and 17, the Commission hosted a Virtual Conference online via Zoom. During the conference, Chair Broussard and Vice Chair Allen Dickerson participated in two panels on Recent Developments in Campaign Finance Law.

Public Disclosure

On November 12, the Office of the Inspector General made public the Independent Auditor’s Report and Financial Statements for the Years Ended September 30, 2021 and 2020.

On November 15, the Commission made public the Agency Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2021.

Upcoming educational programs

December 1, 2021: The Commission will host an FECConnect On Topic session on How to Contact Your Committee’s Analyst.

December 8, 2021: The Commission will host a webinar for nonconnected PACs.

February 8-9, 2022: The Commission will host a regional conference in San Diego, California for candidates, political party committees, and political action committees.

For more information on upcoming training opportunities, see the Commission’s Trainings page.

Upcoming Commission meetings

December 2, 2021: The Commission is scheduled to hold an audit hearing and an open meeting.

December 14, 2021: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

Upcoming reporting due dates

November 20: November Monthly Reports are due. For more information, see the 2021 Monthly Reporting schedule.

Status of agency operations

See the Commission’s statement on the status of agency operations, updated on April 15, 2021. At this stage, most agency staff remain in telework status and the Commission’s office remains closed to visitors. See also the agency’s Workplace Safety Plan, dated May 6, 2021.

Additional research materials

Contribution Limits. In addition to the current limits, the Commission has posted an archive of contribution limits that were in effect going back to the 1975-1976 election cycles.

2020 Presidential General Election Results and Federal Elections 2018: Election Results for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are available. The data was compiled from the official vote totals published by state election offices.

FEC Notify: Want to be notified by email when campaign finance reports are received by the agency? Sign up here.

Additional research materials about the agency, campaign finance information, and election results are available through the Library section of the Commission website.

The Combined Federal State Disclosure and Election Directory is available. This publication identifies the federal and state agencies responsible for the disclosure of campaign finances, lobbying, personal finances, public financing, candidates on the ballot, election results, spending on state initiatives and other financial filings.

The FEC Record is available as a continuously updated online news source.

Other election-related resources

Videos on protecting U.S. elections. The FBI’s Protected Voices initiative provides videos designed to help political campaigns protect themselves from foreign influence. The 2019 videos offer guidance on ransomware, business email compromise, supply chain, social media literacy, and foreign influence operations. Other videos, released in 2018, include cyber hygiene topics such as social engineering, patching, router hardening, and app and browser safety.

Join the FEC on Twitter and YouTube

Follow @FEC on Twitter to receive the latest information on agency updates, news releases, and weekly activity. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, FECTube: FECConnect on Demand, to watch instructional videos that have been designed to help candidates and committees comply with federal campaign finance laws. Note that the FEC is not currently available through other social media platforms currently. The use of the agency’s logo, name, and likeness on other media has not been authorized by the FEC.