Hunter presidential effort draws campaign complaint

15 Mar 2007 // NORTH COUNTY -- A Washington watchdog group with ties to Democratic Party fundraisers has filed a complaint against a political action committee controlled by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, alleging that he has been illegally using its funds to pay for his presidential campaign.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed the complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.

The complaint contends that Hunter, R-El Cajon, has been using money from the political action committee Peace Through Strength that he formed several years ago to pay for more than $17,575 in TV commercials about his support for a fence along the U.S-Mexico border.

Hunter has yet to form an official presidential campaign committee, but has established a presidential exploratory committee. Exploratory committees are prohibited from spending more than $5,000 on political advertising.

The complaint, which drew the wrath of Hunter campaign officials, also contends that the political action committee has accepted 11 campaign contributions exceeding the individual campaign contribution limit of $2,300 and then channeled the money to the presidential effort.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the group filing the complaint, said in a written statement that Hunter has "jumped the gun" on his presidential effort by running ads before formally registering as a presidential candidate.

"By leveraging his leadership PAC to advance his ambitions, he has clearly violated federal election law," Sloan said in the prepared statement. "If Rep. Hunter wants to play in presidential politics, he needs to learn to follow the rules."

Repeated efforts to reach Sloan, a former Justice Department prosecutor who once worked for Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, were unsuccessful.

The complaint seeks a declaration that the political action committee has violated campaign finance laws and a directive that it re-register as a Hunter for President fundraising committee.

Hunter's campaign officials fired back at Sloan on Wednesday, contending that the complaint is based more on politics than election law.

"You don't have to dig very deep to see that it is politically motivated," said Roy Tyler, spokesman for Hunter's presidential campaign.

Efforts to reach Hunter were unsuccessful.

William Canfield, the attorney for Hunter's political action committee that was established to provide support to like-minded candidates, said that nothing in the TV ads violated campaign finance laws and that they will continue to air in selected states. They have not aired in California.

"Great effort was made to ensure that nothing in the ads could constitute express advocacy of any candidate," Canfield said.

Canfield, a former chairman of the American Bar Association's committee on election law, also said Sloan is a "serial filer of ethics and (election) complaints."

He also said a Washington law firm that he would not identify will soon challenge the tax-exempt status of Citizens for Responsibility, contending that the number of complaints it has filed against GOP members of Congress and Republican campaign committees proves it is a partisan group.