For Immediate Release |
Contact: |
Judith Ingram |
September 18, 2009 |
| Julia Queen |
| |
| Christian Hilland |
ISSUE 2009-19
Weekly Digest
Week of September 14 – September 18
COMMISSION MEETINGS
The Commission did not hold Open or Executive Sessions this week. Sunshine Act Notices for Executive Sessions are here. Agendas and related documents for Open Meetings are here.
Audio recordings for selected meetings, hearings and presentations are here.
ADVISORY OPINIONS
Request Received
AOR 2009-26 (State Representative Coulson). On September 16, the Commission made public Advisory Opinion Request 2009-26, filed on behalf of Illinois State Representative Elizabeth Coulson and her congressional and state campaign committees. State Representative Coulson asks whether she can use state campaign and officeholder funds to pay for an event and certain mailings in her capacity as a state representative while she is a candidate for federal office.
Advisory Opinions, Requests, Comments and Extensions are available here.
ENFORCEMENT
The Commission made public one closed case this week. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.
MUR 5534 – Business Alaska, Inc.; Jack Frost & Friends and Jack Frost as President. The Commission used its prosecutorial discretion to close the matter with respect to Business Alaska, Inc. and Jack Frost. The Commission found no reason to believe that Jack Frost & Friends violated the Act.
ADMINISTRATIVE FINES
The Commission made public 10 Administrative Fine cases this week.
AF 1774 – George Fearing for Congress and Douglas E. McKinley, Jr. as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $750.
AF 2038 – Friends of Amata and Michael Lawrence Usle as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $500.
AF 2047 – Benny Shendo for Congress and Joseph A. Garcia as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $250.
AF 2050 – Chase for Senate and Francis G. Chase as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination to take no further action.
AF 2054 – Committee to Elect Kenya 2 Congress and Roland Barthe as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $500.
AF 2056 – Cox 2008 Committee Inc. and Claremont Ruff as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $10.
AF 2059 – DeCuir for Congress and Winton G. DeCuir, Sr. as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed no civil penalty.
AF 2062 – Fannie Lou Hamer Federal Political Action Committee and Edwin K. Washington as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $500.
AF 2075 – Mark Anderson for Congress and Korey Boals as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $65.
AF 2079 – Pipkin for Congress and Stephen S. Hershey as Treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $250.
ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
The Commission made public two campaign finance enforcement matters that were resolved through its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.
ADR 452 – Oregon Republican Party and Dennis Morgan as Treasurer. The respondents agreed to implement compliance measures and pay a civil penalty of $4,000.
ADR 492 – Committee to Re-Elect Ed Towns and Albert C. Wiltshire as Treasurer. The respondents agreed to implement compliance measures and pay a civil penalty of $2,000.
LITIGATION
EMILY’s List v. FEC. On September 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the decision of the district court in Emily’s List v. Federal Election Commission and ordered that the district court vacate the challenged regulations. The regulations at issue concern funds received in response to solicitations (11 C.F.R. 100.57), the method for allocating administrative expenses, costs of generic voter drives, and certain public communications (11 C.F.R. 106.6(c)), and payments for public communications and voter drives that refer to one or more clearly identified federal or non-federal candidates (11 C.F.R. 106.6(f)).
Speechnow.org v. FEC. On September 14, oral argument was held in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on the parties’ proposed findings of fact. Plaintiff Speechnow.org has challenged the constitutionality of contribution limits, reporting requirements, and political committee registration requirements as applied to its proposed activities.
AUDIT REPORTS
The Commission approved and made public one Audit Report. A summary of the findings is below. Final Audit Reports are available here.
Committee on Arrangements for the 2008 Republican National Committee (COA). The COA received $16,820,760 in public funds to finance the Republican National Convention. The mandatory audit found that the COA had funds remaining after paying all convention expenses. Under federal law, any amount of unspent public funds must be returned to the Secretary of the Treasury. Therefore, the Commission determined that the Committee must repay $1,081,624 to the Secretary of the Treasury by November 30, 2009.
PRESS RELEASES
2010 Congressional Candidates Raise over $250 Million First Half of 2009; Senate Candidates Raise Record Amount for Period (issued September 14)
OUTREACH
On September 15-16, in Chicago, IL, the FEC conducted informal briefings for PACs, party committees and candidate committees on areas of the law specific to their needs.
NEXT WEEK (SEPTEMBER 21 – 25, 2009)
September 24: The Commission is scheduled to hold an Open Session.
UPCOMING EVENTS
October 28-29, San Francisco, CA – Regional Conference for Campaigns, Party Committees and Corporate/Labor/Trade PACs. The schedule is here.
UPCOMING REPORTING DUE DATES
September 20 – September Monthly Report
OTHER RESOURCES
The September issue of The Record is here. Sign up here to receive email notification when a new issue of the Record is posted.
The September supplements to the FEC’s Campaign Guides are here. |
