Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Kentucky AG Missed FEC Filing Deadline

Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo a Democrat thinking about challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell next year, apparently goofed and failed to file a quarterly FEC report earlier this month. Captain Ed has the story.

This oversight, if true, is easily fixed by filing a report. The problem is that Stumbo, under teh law, is not required to file his quarterly reports with the FEC. As a Senate candidate he has to file them with the Secretary of the Senate who then forwards them to the FEC. It is an arcane rule, a left over of the original FEC law not McCain-Feingold.

So in reality, Stumbo may have complied with the law, we just don't know yet.

The problem is that for most of the general public, they wouldn't know about Stumbo's or any other Senate canddiate's spending for some time unless they voluntarily file with the FEC concurrently with their filing with the Secretary of the Senate. That is the problem with the law--it is inconsistent with reporting procedures. That inconsistency undermines the stated purpose behind the law, to provide open access to the manner in which federal campaigns are financed.

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