Week of October 27 - October 31, 2014

Weekly Digest

Week of October 27 – 31

COMMISSION MEETINGS AND HEARINGS

No Commission open meetings or executive sessions were scheduled this week.

ENFORCEMENT

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

MUR 6677
COMPLAINANT: William B. Canfield III, on behalf of Jeff Landry
RESPONDENT: Charles Boustany Jr. M.D. for Congress and Alan D. Hebert, in his official capacity as treasurer
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that Charles Boustany Jr. M.D. for Congress and Hebert, in his official capacity as treasurer (the Committee), distributed a mailer that failed to include a disclaimer. Boustany was a 2012 candidate for Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District.
DISPOSITION: The Commission exercised its prosecutorial discretion and dismissed the matter in light of the fact that the exact scope and cost of the mailer at issue is unknown.

MUR 6782
COMPLAINANT: Justin Meeks
RESPONDENT: Mark Pryor for U.S. Senate and Bob Edwards, in his official capacity as treasurer
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that Mark Pryor for U.S. Senate and Edwards, in his official capacity as treasurer (the Committee), included in television ads an image of Pryor that was not large enough to identify him clearly as the candidate approving the ad. Pryor is a 2014 candidate for Arkansas’s United States Senate seat.
DISPOSITION: The Commission exercised its prosecutorial discretion and dismissed the matter in light of the fact that (1) the original ads appear to have contained sufficient information to clearly identify who paid for the communications, as well as an apparently adequate spoken message of approval by the candidate, and (2) the Committee took immediate action to remedy any alleged disclaimer violation by increasing the candidate’s photo to a full screen view on new ads.

MUR 6578 – Doug LaMalfa Committee and David Bauer, in his official capacity as treasurer; Doug LaMalfa; Mark Spannagel; and www.sam4congress.com. On October 28, Chairman Lee E. Goodman issued a Statement of Reasons.

ADMINISTRATIVE FINES

The Commission made public two campaign finance enforcement matters that were resolved through its Administrative Fines (AF) program, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

AF 2767 – Steve Salazar for Congress and Rosario Rodriguez, in her official capacity as treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $8,662.

AF 2776 – Flemming for Congress and Martha Flemming, in her official capacity as treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $330.

COMMISSIONERS’ STATEMENTS

On October 29, a Statement was issued by Chairman Goodman and Commissioners Caroline C. Hunter and Matthew S. Petersen regarding the submission of public comments regarding the Commission’s treatment of online political activity.

LITIGATION

CREW, et al. v. FEC (Case 1:14-cv-01419-CRC). On October 28, the Commission filed a Motion to Dismiss  in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Public Citizen, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 14-5199). On October 28, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an Order granting the motion by Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies to stay the district court proceedings pending resolution of its appeal.

OUTREACH

October 28, Communications Specialist Zainab Smith discussed the role of the Commission with a group of governmental and political leaders from South and Central America. The group was visiting the United States as part of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.

October 28 – 29, Vice Chair Ann M. Ravel and Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub participated in the XII Conference of the Inter-America Union of Electoral Organizations in Santiago, Chile. The event was sponsored by the Center for Electoral Promotion and Assistance of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights and the Electoral Court and Electoral Service of Chile.

October 29, Disclosure Business Architect Paul Clark spoke about the Commission’s campaign finance disclosure database at a lecture entitled “Data + Narrative: Storytelling with Money and Politics Data” at Boston University’s Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science and Engineering in Boston, MA.

October 29, Communications Specialist Chris Berg met with American University students to discuss the role of the Commission.

October 30, Chairman Goodman participated in a panel discussion entitled “Making the Grade: The In-House Counsel’s Role in Public Reporting Documents” at the annual meeting of the Association of Corporate Counsel in New Orleans, LA.

PRESS RELEASES

FEC Cites Committees for Failure to File October Quarterly Financial Report (issued October 30)

FEC Cites Committees for Failure to File Pre-General Financial Report  (issued October 31)

UPCOMING COMMISSION MEETINGS

November 6: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting and an executive session.

November 18: The Commission is scheduled to hold an executive session.

November 20: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

Meeting dates are subject to change. Please contact the Press Office the week of the scheduled meeting for confirmation.

UPCOMING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

November 19, 2014, Federal Election Commission, Washington, DC. Roundtable/Webinar and In-Person Workshop on Post-General Reporting & Winding Down the Campaign. Additional information is available on the Educational Outreach page of the Commission website.

UPCOMING REPORTING DUE DATES

December 4: Post-General Reports are due. For information on general election reporting dates, refer to the 2014 General Election Reporting page of the Commission website.

OTHER RESOURCES

The 2014 edition of the Combined Federal State Disclosure and Election Directory is available in the Public Records section of the Commission website. 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 2014 edition of Title 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations can be downloaded from the website.  To order printed copies, call (800) 424-9530 (press 6) or send an email to info@fec.gov.

The 2013 Legislative Recommendations are available on the Commission’s website.

The 2014 edition of the Federal Election Commission Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees is now available on the Commission’s website.

The August 2013 edition of the Federal Election Commission Campaign Guide for Political Party Committees is available on the Commission’s website.

The Official 2012 Presidential General Election Results are available in the Library section of the website. This listing was compiled from the official election results published by state election offices.

An index to Record news articles published is available on the Commission website. The Record news page is available in the Publications section of the Commission website. Sign up to receive email notification when new articles are posted.

The FEC Annual Reports from 1975-2006 are now available on the website. Beginning in 2007, the Commission consolidated its Annual Report with its Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) to provide a single account of the agency’s activities for each fiscal year.

Instructional videos are available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/FECTube?feature=watch. These videos are also available on the Commission’s E-Learning resources page at http://www.fec.gov/info/elearning.shtml.

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