Posted on 04/03/2009 11:30:38 AM PDT by jazusamo
Scores of lawmakers missed a deadline to start disclosing their ties to political action committees as required by law.
Some of them were sponsors of the law that imposed the new requirement.
Such widespread failure to officially declare their connections to so-called “leadership PACs” means it may be some time before voters can see whether their senators and representatives have auxiliary funds that let them distribute money separately from their re-election committees.
The new disclosures were due at the Federal Election Commission by March 29.
The deadline was set by the FEC as it implemented a larger campaign finance overhaul law passed in September 2007 (PL 110-81). While more than 230 lawmakers met the deadline, a significant number with known connections to leadership PACs did not .
The law requires that any fund-raising committee must file as a leadership PAC “if the committee is directly or indirectly established, financed, maintained or controlled by a federal candidate or officeholder.” It was designed to allow the public for the first time to see all contributions received by lawmakers from lobbyists and general donors — no matter which entity cashed the check.
Leadership PACs are generally used to support the campaigns of House and Senate colleagues — and thus win friends who might back pet projects — and finance party-building efforts.
The 92 PACS known to be controlled by members who have not filed or filed late raised more than $15 million during the 2008 cycle, according to an analysis by CQ MoneyLine.
“We are doing our best to make sure that everybody out there knows about their requirements under the law,” said FEC Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democrat. “It may have fallen off people’s radar screens.”
Some senior congressional appropriators are among those with known connections to committees that did not register as leadership PACs, until after being asked about missing the deadline.
They include: Reps. John P. Murtha , D-Pa., who controls the Majority PAC; Todd Tiahrt , R-Kan., who runs Heart PAC; Peter J. Visclosky , D-Ind., with Calumet PAC; Alan B. Mollohan , D-W.Va., with Summit PAC; C.W. Bill Young , R-Fla., with Victory Political Action Committee; and Marcy Kaptur , D-Ohio, with the TrueDem Leadership Fund.
Two other Appropriations Committee members filed late: Sen. Patty Murray , D-Wash., tied to M-PAC; and Rep. David R. Obey , D-Wis., who has the Committee for a Progressive Congress.
The eight appropriators’s leadership PACs raised more than $1.7 million during the last election cycle.
Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said it was an “oversight error” that Majority PAC did not register. “We have corrected the mistake,” he said, after being contacted by CQ MoneyLine.
Some of those who failed to report their PAC connections by the March 29 deadline were either direct sponsors or co-sponsors of the 2007 lobbying and campaign finance law. For example, the bill’s primary sponsor in the House, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich., did not file a report revealing his relationship with the America Forward Leadership PAC until after his office was contacted by CQ MoneyLine. His fund raised more than $270,000 during the 2008 election cycle.
Another cosponsor who also neglected to file was Rep. Brad Sherman , D-Calif. He is listed as honorary chairman of the Southern California Fund.
Sherman said he was uncertain about whether the law required Southern California Fund to register as a leadership PAC.
“I don’t think that applies,” he said. “But it is close enough to applying that if other leadership PACs are filing, we should to. It strikes me as a close call; close enough that we should err on the side of filing.”
Two other cosponsors of the law who, like Conyers, filed two days late were Sen. Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., and Sen. Robert Menendez , D-N.J. Leahy controls the Green Mountain PAC and Menendez’s PAC is known as New Millennium.
“Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said it was an “oversight error” that Majority PAC did not register. “We have corrected the mistake,” he said, after being contacted by CQ MoneyLine.”
Why do we alert these idiots? Why not let it wait until just before the elections...
Good question...I don’t buy it that it was an oversight, had they not been caught nothing would have been done
Only peons must apply with the laws of the land; the ruling class is exempt.
Turbo Tax’s Fault!!!
;-)
</sarc>
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