Fec

So much for states’ rights: Iowa-based American Future Fund wants the Federal Elections Commission to rule against Minnesota’s long-standing ban on robocalls in order to include Minnesota in its national robocall campaigns, the Star Tribune reports. The group, which bills itself as a “conservative and free market” operation, filed a complaint with the FEC arguing [...]

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen has raised nearly $1 million so far this year. The freshman Republican took in $318,000 in the third quarter of 2009 and had $725,000 in the bank, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

The death panels at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) work slowly. News that the FEC had dismissed a complaint against former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s re-election campaign finally reached the public yesterday — nine months after it was filed and six weeks after commissioners decided to put it out of its misery.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) covered $500,000 of U.S. Sen. Al Franken’s recount-related legal costs last month, the Associated Press reports. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) already made its big payout ($938,000) to former Sen. Norm Coleman’s lawyers in May, so last month it paid out a relative trickle ($8,640). Legal bills aside, a Minnesota [...]

Two outside organizations and Norm Coleman’s re-election campaign illegally coordinated advertising that aided Coleman via a political consultant they all shared, the Minnesota DFL Party charged in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
No, they didn’t, the FEC has ruled.

The Federal Election Commission gave former Sen. Norm Coleman wide berth to spend money raised for his campaign on costs associated with civil lawsuits in which he’s not even a party.

Norm Coleman may not dip into his campaign coffers to cover all his expenses stemming from lawsuits and other complaints that allege misconduct by him or his donors. That’s the upshot of draft advisory opinions issued Thursday by the Federal Election Commission.

Win or lose his pending election appeal, Norm Coleman has other legal matters to worry about: several allegations contained in lawsuits and other formal complaints about improper or unreported gifts and favors from wealthy friends. And a new federal ruling in the case of another pol looks like it won’t help Coleman.

A clothes-shopping spree that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin started in Minnesota didn’t break the law, in the opinion of the Federal Election Commission, even though it was paid for by the GOP.

Norm Coleman shouldn’t be able to use campaign funds to pay lawyers for work related to cases in which he’s not a defendant and hasn’t even been called as a witness. That’s what Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today.