Republican Party of Virginia: RPV Files FEC Complaint Against DNC for Illegal Ad

FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF VIRGINIA

April 28, 2008

CONTACT: Josh Noland
804-780-0111 Office ~ 804-201-1527 Cell
jnoland@rpv.org


RICHMOND, VA – Republican Party of Virginia Chairman John Hager filed a formal complaint Monday with the Federal Elections Commission that states that a Democratic National Committee (DNC) campaign ad was coordinated with its presidential candidates which is against the law. The ad, which is running on cable stations nationwide, exceeds the $5,000 contribution limit to each of its presidential candidates. As a result, it constitutes an excessive in-kind contribution from the DNC to its candidates and violates the Federal Election Campaign Act.

RPV’s complaint details how the ad passes the three-prong test that must be satisfied in order to show that a violation has occurred:

1. The ad is paid for by the DNC (not by either of the Democratic presidential candidates it benefits).
2. The ad clearly references a federal candidate (John McCain) within the restricted timeframe.
3. The DNC is regularly communicating with its’ candidates campaigns.



“Not only are the Democrats blatantly distorting comments made by John McCain, but they are clearly breaking the law in order to do so,” said Hager. “The DNC should immediately pull this ad. If they refuse to do so, then Senators Clinton and Obama and their supporters, including Governor Kaine, should call on the DNC to stop running the ad.” Numerous recent press accounts show that the DNC and the campaigns were working together to put out this ad.

According to a report from http://Washingtonpost.com entitled “DNC Officials Huddle With Clinton, Obama Campaigns”: DNC “officials have met in recent days with the top campaign brass of Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) to brief them on the committee’s plans in the coming months. (“DNC Officials Huddle With Clinton, Obama Campaigns” by Chris Cillizza, http://Washingtonpost.com, April 25, 2008) A separate news story from ABC News reports on the collaboration between the DNC and pollsters for Obama and Clinton:

“I don’t think we have to bring up age,” said Cornell Belcher, an Obama pollster who collaborated on the DNC’s McCain poll. “I don’t think we will”…Since the Democrats have not yet settled on a presidential candidate, Dean was joined in making the polling presentation by Belcher, one of Sen. Barack Obama’s pollsters, as well as Allan Rivlin, whose polling firm does work for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. (“Dean: McCain’s Age Worries Voters” by Teddy Davis and Mike Elmore, http://ABCNews.com, April 10, 2008) The ad is viewable online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFDc4M_PMNk. ,