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What Arizonans are Reading & Watching About McSally’s “History of FEC Problems”

Congresswoman Martha McSally is coming under scrutiny following an FEC complaint that she “improperly maintained a campaign fundraising operation for the House of Representatives even after declaring — and raising money for — her Senate run.”

As the Arizona Republic points out, McSally has “a history of FEC problems” and her “political fundraising efforts have been dogged for years by filing shortfalls and errors.” Case in point: this new complaint “follows a rare FEC audit of McSally’s campaign finance reporting after years of dispute over details of her spending and unusually vague identification of her donors.” Here’s what Arizonans are reading and watching:

Associated Press: Group: McSally Improperly Fundraising for House, Senate.

  • End Citizens United filed a complaint Friday against McSally with the Federal Election Commission, The Arizona Republic reported[, claiming] McSally’s campaign has already moved $1 million from her House committee to her Senate committee since announcing she was running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.
  • “Representative McSally has invented her own set of rules, courting donors to support a nonexistent campaign for the House of Representatives so she can have two bites at the apple while running for Senate,” the group argues in its complaint.
  • The Federal Elections Commission audited McSally’s campaign finance reporting after years of dispute over details of her spending and unusually vague identification of her donors.
  • McSally formally kicked off her Senate campaign Jan. 12. Still, her House campaign committee raised at least $156,000 from individuals and political action committees from Jan. 13 through March 1, according to Federal Election Commission records. At least some donors appeared in both the House and Senate reports, though it was unclear whether their donations were tallied separately or combined.

Read the full article here.

WATCH: KMSB (FOX)

 

Arizona Republic: Liberal group: Martha McSally improperly raising money for House, Senate at same time
By Ronald J. Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

  • Rep. Martha McSally has improperly maintained a campaign fundraising operation for the House of Representatives even after declaring — and raising money for — her Senate run, a liberal group backing a potential opponent says.
  • End Citizens United notes in its complaint that McSally’s campaign has already moved $1 million from her House committee to her Senate committee since announcing Jan. 12 she was running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake… “Representative McSally has invented her own set of rules, courting donors to support a nonexistent campaign for the House of Representatives so she can have two bites at the apple while running for Senate,” the group argues in its complaint.
  • The new complaint follows a rare FEC audit of McSally’s campaign finance reporting after years of dispute over details of her spending and unusually vague identification of her donors.
  • McSally formally kicked off her Senate campaign Jan. 12, flying from Tucson to Phoenix and Prescott to confirm what had been an open secret for months. Still, after the announcement, her House campaign committee raised at least $156,000 from individuals and PACs from Jan. 13 through March 1, FEC records show. At least some donors appeared in both the House and Senate reports, though it was unclear whether their donations were tallied separately or combined. The House campaign also paid $283,000 in expenses after Jan. 12, though it is unclear when the services billed to the campaign occurred.
  • A history of FEC problems: […] Last week, the FEC unanimously adopted the findings of an audit that concluded her 2014 campaign committee, McSally for Congress, repeatedly misreported what it collected and spent, failed to fully identify many of its donors and failed to properly acknowledge some of its eleventh-hour  contributions, among other problems.
  • Auditors found that McSally’s campaign took in $319,000 in contributions that exceeded legal limits and did not file required reports for $100,000 in contributions that came in the campaign’s waning days.

Read the full article here.

WATCH: KOLD (CBS)

 

Arizona Public Media: Group Claims McSally Fundraising for Two Campaigns
By Steve Jess

  • A campaign finance watchdog group claims Republican congresswoman Martha McSally is breaking the law by collecting donations for two campaigns simultaneously.
  • The group End Citizens United filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission, claiming McSally is collecting donations for her House campaign even though she is actively running for the U.S. Senate.
  • The Federal Election Commission website shows McSally’s House campaign was still recording donations at the end of March, six weeks after she announced her campaign for the Senate.
  • End Citizens United spokesman Adam Bozzi rejects McSally’s explanation that the old House campaign account is still open because it’s being audited. “If it was because of the audit, that still means they shouldn’t be fundraising in the two accounts at the same time. They certainly have the opportunity to declare that they weren’t using the House account, that it wasn’t active, and that she was running for Senate,” Bozzi said.

Read the full article here.

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