FEC: Franken, Dems can keep raising funds for Senate contest

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) signaled Friday that Al Franken and national Democrats will get an OK to raise funds beyond existing caps in the ongoing Senate election contest in Minnesota. Republican groups that help Norm Coleman’s effort echoed Franken’s Feb. 17 request for an advisory opinion from the FEC. The three draft opinions released today (pdf) would approve some form of post-election fundraising by the party, Franken or both, outside of pre-election limits.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee joined Franken in making the original request, seeking an FEC ruling that would allow individuals to contribute up to $30,400 to a proposed DSCC legal fund, while political committees would be permitted to donate up to $15,000.

FEC spokeswoman Judith Ingram told the Minnesota Independent it’s typical for commissioners to select from among several draft advisory opinions that sometimes contain only minor variations from one another.

In this case the drafts differ in who could raise funds under new limits and whether new groups could form. Draft A says:

… the DSCC may establish a recount fund and use it to pay for expenses incurred in connection with recounts and election contests … [but] the Franken Committee may not establish a separate election contest fund subject to a limit that is separate from and in addition to its existing recount fund.

Draft B says that the DSCC may establish the same kind of fund for recount and election contest expenses and that:

… the Franken Committee may establish an election contest fund separate from its existing recount fund and that donations to the election contest fund will not be aggregated with donations to the recount fund …

Draft C says:

… any funds the DSCC solicits, including any funds the DSCC solicits for any recount fund it establishes (whether separate or not from the committee’s general funds) are not subject to a separate donation limit … [and] that the Franken Committee may establish an election contest fund separate from its existing recount fund, and donations to the election contest and recount funds are not subject to the limitations of the [Federal Election Campaign] Act

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee told the FEC on Feb. 26 they agreed with the Franken and DSCC request.

Ingram said the FEC opinions are “precedental,” meaning all parties involved in the current contest for Coleman’s former Senate seat could take advantage of the ruling — as could candidates and partisan groups in future post-election recounts.

The FEC’s draft advisory opinions come on the same day the Coleman-Franken election contest trial wrapped up. The three-judge panel heard closing arguments from both candidates’ legal teams and now can begin deliberations.

An appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is possible — and the loser could also try to bring a suit in federal court — so both candidates’ campaigns will likely face ongoing legal expenses. So they will welcome the word from the FEC today, which Franken had originally sought by the end of February.

Coleman’s fundraising efforts may now be hampered, however, by the donor-information leak that made headlines this week after information from campaign databases were posted at the Wikileaks.org Web site.

The FEC has received other requests related to the Coleman-Franken battle. In January, the Alliance for a Better Minnesota asked the commission to take action in response to the Coleman campaign’s stated intention to use campaign funds to pay for legal expenses related to a civil lawsuit that implicated the former senator in a supporter’s alleged scheme to give him $100,000 in unreported donations.

A Coleman spokesman said in December that the campaign would seek an opinion on whether it could direct campaign funds to Coleman’s legal expenses in the civil suit, but hasn’t filed a request for a FEC advisory opinion. Ingram said spending campaign money on personal legal matters is the kind of question on which candidates are well-advised to seek FEC opinions.

Also in January, Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party filed an FEC complaint over fundraising for Coleman’s post-election campaign efforts by the Republican National Lawyer’s Association.