Obama ‘08 campaign fined $375,000 by FEC

KEN THOMAS

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — Pres­i­dent Barack Obama’s 2008 cam­paign has been fined $375,000 by the Fed­eral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion for report­ing vio­la­tions related to a set of dona­tions received dur­ing the final days of the campaign.

The fines are among the largest ever levied on a pres­i­den­tial cam­paign by the FEC and stem from a series of miss­ing notices for nearly 1,200 con­tri­bu­tions total­ing nearly $1.9 million.

Cam­paigns are required to file reports within 48 hours on dona­tions of $1,000 or more received dur­ing the final 20 days of the cam­paign. The fine was detailed in a con­cil­i­a­tion agree­ment sent to Sean Cairn­cross, chief coun­sel for the Repub­li­can National Committee.

Obama cam­paign spokes­woman Katie Hogan said the 2008 cam­paign had more than 3 mil­lion donors and “the very few out­stand­ing ques­tions have now all been resolved.” Obama’s cam­paign raised nearly $750 mil­lion from 2007 to 2008.

The fines, first reported by Politico, are among the largest assessed on a pres­i­den­tial cam­paign, accord­ing to the FEC. Al Sharpton’s 2004 cam­paign was fined more than $200,000, and Kansas Sen. Bob Dole’s 1988 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign paid a $100,000 fine.

Among other large fines involv­ing polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tions, lib­eral group Amer­ica Com­ing Together was fined $775,000 in 2007.

The fines fol­lowed an audit of the cam­paign by the FEC in the after­math of com­plaints by the Repub­li­can National Com­mit­tee and oth­ers groups. The Obama cam­paign paid $230,000 in fines and the Demo­c­ra­tic National Com­mit­tee, which ran a joint fundrais­ing com­mit­tee with the cam­paign, paid the remainder.

Posted by AP News on Jan 5 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.