Thursday, May 18, 2006

FEC could fine Lamont Campaign $16k

If you can't get your campaign to meet FEC filing deadlines, you shouldn't be running for office. The FEC makes it easy to file online, and it's not like fundraising went all that well for Lamont.


The Federal Elections Commission said yesterday that the United States Senate campaign of Ned Lamont had failed to meet the deadline for filing a fund-raising report before the state Democratic nominating convention, which opens on Friday. The commission said it notified the campaign in April and again this month that the deadline for reporting April fund-raising was May 8.


NYT, By WILLIAM YARDLEY, May 18, 2006

19 comments:

tparty said...

Not quite:

"The commission said the campaign could be fined as much as$16,000."

tparty said...

I fail to understand how this news - which was reported last week, but which no one seemed to pay attention to at the time - should or will affect the convention or primary vote at all.

The campaign made a mistake about the date and filed a late report. Lamont has the money to pay for any fine himself (which has not been decided yet).

So what?

tparty said...

d_r: It was in the Journal Inquirer this past Friday.

And no, I wouldn't go after Joe for being late with a finance report. The same way I'm not going after him for having out-of-state donors. Those are irrelevant issues.

What matters is who is financing these campaigns, not where they live or if a report is filed a few days late.

Gabe said...

I didn't know where to put this (I'm not sure its worth a front page post since it does not effect that many people and I am knee deep in equitable servitudes anyway), so here goes:

MoveOn.org will be holdig a secured online primary to determine whether to support Lamont, Lieberman, someone else, or no one at all in the Connecticut primary.

A 2/3 vote (of votes, not of members) is required in order for MoveOn to jump in and you must have been a member as of this morning at 8:00AM in order to vote.

The vote will take place for 24 hours starting in the morning of May 25th. My Left Nutmeg (linked above has all the details).

It will be interesting to see, assuming MO does get involved in favor of Lamont, how much of their resources will be brought to bear and how much of a difference it will make.

Gabe said...

And, of course, "holding" is generally spelled with an "n".

ctblogger said...

turffgirl-

This is a real low point for this blog. First, the headline was clearly false then you change the headline without giving notice. Genghis would of never pulled that type of crap.

Also, this is really old news as thirdparty clearly noted so what's the deal with posting this today?

Unlike my blog, I thought this site was suppose to be as unbiased as possible. I hope Genghis gives you a good slap on your wrist (or maybe give you the boot) as he would never do something as shady as changing a headline without making a notation of his error.

ctblogger said...

bluecoat:

She might not be running for office but she is a guest blogger on this site and there is certain things you don't do and changing content in a post without making a notation is number one on the list.

Genghis worked hard to make CLP a respectable blog and would never stoop to doing shady things like changing a headline without posting an update note. Also, this story is old news and was clearly done for partisan reasons.

There is a certain standard Genghis has set with the content of his blog and if the guest bloggers can't understand that, then maybe they should not be guest bloggers.

ctblogger said...

D_R:

First off, enough with the all caps, it makes you look like a fool and you should conduct yourself better on this blog since your a guest blogger.

Second, third party already posted the article from 5/12 that talked about Lamont missing his deadline at 2:51. Maybe if you weren't coming unhinged, you would of caught that.

Third, this is not a big deal which is why no one really cared enough to do a post on it and I wouldn't of posted a thing if Joe missed the deadline because I don't see the point. Like thirdparty said, the real issue is the people who contribute to the campaign not whether or not someone misses a deadline.

Oh I can see it now...a undecided voter casting his or her vote on the fact that someone missed a deadline...give me a break.

With the convention one day away, do you really think people in Connecticut really care about this? Now, if you want to look into who is contributing to Lamont, feel free to do so...that's fair game, but a positng like this (which IS old news) AND changing the content of the post without giving disclosure is not only wrong, but dishonest.

ctblogger said...

I put it up today on another thread and quite often stuff I have put up on a thread GC has highlighted on a new post such as the GOP Treasurer candidate notice in the post today that I linked yesterday.

The difference is that I think Genghis would of known that this was old news and wouldn't of posted about this or at the very least, linked to the 5/12 piece (all bloggers use Google News alerts).

Also, I think Genghis would of raised a red flag about today's story BECAUSE it was already reported on 5/12 YET it was reported again today one day before the convention.

That's the real story.

Gabe said...

To answer D_R's challenge,

As a (reluctant) Lamont supporter, I am not in favor of him missing FEC filing deadlines. That said, I can't see the reason to get so fired up about it. He missed the deadline and (presumably) will pay the fine. Properly chastened, I imagine that he won't miss the next one.

As a supporter of lots of different types of election reform (and not a huge fan of this decision), I am more bothered by the $29,000+ that Joe Lieberman received as bundles from executives of CitiGroup and Northland (think the CitiGroup money would have been as forthcoming if he had voted against cloture on the bankruptcy bill?) and the $35,000+ from PACs (two biggest: an energy company and a manufacturer of military ordnance).

Am I a hypocrite? I don't know, because Lieberman has not missed a filing. I like to think that I would not be that upset about it. As long as he paid the fine and met future deadlines, what can you really do?

I can say this with certainty: It would not affect my vote one way or the other.

tparty said...

Gabe-

Thank you.

To be clear, I am not in favor of campaigns missing filing deadlines either. Nor am I in favor of individuals making late credit card payments. But the idea that this is even an issue worth discussing is laughable.

You really have to ask why the Lieberman people here are jumping on this? One day before the convention? With a candidate who eats up corporate lobbyist cash by the barrelfull?

It's obvious these folks have an acute case of Joementum. :)

ctblogger said...

danbury is still uninvaded - they just paid the town a visit.Oh my, you're sooo funny. I think there a plce in Vegas that could use your talent and wit.

Also, the point of my Lamont piece is to illustrate why the delegate count really doesn't really matter as much as people are trying to make it out to be and most political junkies already know this.

In the end, it all comes down to money, message, and organization which is why going the petition route is a wise move as DavidNYC at Swing State Project explained.

Gabe said...

Minor point here, but, the Lamont campaign ran afoul of FEC regulations, not federal law.

I am about 85% certain that things like filing deadlines and the penalties for missing them are not voted on and passed by Congress, but left to administrative agencies like the FEC to decide and implement.

Had they violated McCain-Feingold by accepting unlimited soft money they would have run afoul of federal law.

Like I said, neither here nor there...

ctkeith said...

Turfy sounds like M. Lisa Moody now.

"The Headline was never There" is about equal to "This meeting never Happened"

You made a mistake.Fix it by adding an update and an apology and MoveOn.

Mistakes are forgiveable,being arrogant and defending mistakes ain't.

Genghis Conn said...

Actually, according to http://query.nictusa.com/ (FEC), "By law, Senate committees are precluded from filing electronically." It's still a missed deadline, and that really ought not to happen.

It won't matter tomorrow night.

I'm not sure what you guys are waiting for. The headline was fixed. I make mistakes, too.

Gabe said...

I am waiting for someone else to take my property final for me tomorrow... Any takers?

Turf - as I said, a minor point...

ctblogger said...

From FEC Fines Lamont Campaign 16K to FEC could fine Lamont Campaign $16k and you call that mistyping? Got'cha.

You should of did a note to clarify that you made an error but instead you want to be arrogant about it.

Sad. Much you need to learn you young blogging grasshopper.

What about the fact that this is old news (5/12)? What about the fact that this old story was in today's paper a day before the convention.

Is this the best you can do in terms of finding dirt on Lamont? POst a week old story?

Three words: Google News Alerts.

Genghis, see ya at the convention!

Genghis Conn said...

Good luck on your propery final, Gabe!

Gabe said...

D_R -

That said, Gabe, thank you for stepping up. Only took Lamontum supporters 7 hours (realize you may not have been at a computer).

For this Lamont supporter, studying was more important than this issue. I feel that is wholly consistent with my view that missing a filing deadline, while undesirable, is not all that important.

That said, next time I will try to be quicker. ;)

And, I don't presume to speak for CTBlogger, but I believe that the English in question was a referrence to Yoda/Kung Fu movies.

Yes, I like Star Wars and Kung Fu movies. Stop judging me.