Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Democrats file complaint over Porter campaign funds

The Nevada Democratic Party filed a Federal Election Commission complaint Monday against Republican Jon Porter, accusing the congressional candidate of accepting $37,650 in excessive contributions during the first three months of the year.

Porter said the excessive contributions -- those that topped the $1,000 per election permitted from an individual -- have been legally reattributed to another person, refunded or redesignated to another election.

But Democrats called the procedure "Enron accounting," and a national watchdog group thinks the overages are a result of "sloppy reporting."

The complaint alleges Porter, who is running for Nevada's new 3rd Congressional District seat, violated federal election law by accepting a series of contributions in amounts ranging from $175 to $3,000 above the legal limit during the Jan. 1 to March 31 reporting period filed April 15.

An FEC analyst notified Porter's campaign on May 29 that she discovered the excessive contributions and said the campaign needed to submit an amended report to denote if the overage is being reattributed to another donor or redesignated to another election.

FEC rules allow money in excess of the $1,000 per primary or $1,000 per general election to be kept, only if it is redesignated to another election or reattributed to another person, usually a donor's spouse, within 60 days.

"The acceptance of excessive contributions is a serious problem," Leah Palmer, a reports analyst with the FEC, wrote to Porter. "Again, the committee's procedures for processing contributions should be examined and corrected in order to avoid this problem."

Palmer said Porter's campaign must either provide more information about the donations -- such as whether they were being reattributed to the general election or to a spouse -- or must demonstrate that the campaign used the "best efforts" it could to obtain the information.

Democrats cried foul when Porter's campaign treasurer, Chrissie Hastie, wrote back to the FEC on June 5 stating that she believes the campaign is compliant because it is in the process of sorting out why the donor sent in more than the permitted amount.

Hastie stated that each of the suspect contributions was either listed as a redesignation/reattribution, or was designated as "seeking redesignation/ reattribution." In the latter case, the amended donation description is due when the candidate files the next quarterly report.

The new quarterly report, filed Monday, does show two refunds for a total of $500 and outlines how the questioned contributions are reattributed or redesignated.

"Part of the game in an election is who raises the most money," said Pam Egan, executive director of the Nevada State Democratic Party and the person who filed the complaint. "That can be an important indicator and there's enough of a pattern here with Porter to suggest that at the end of April he used it to hold up a report and say this is how much I raised even if at that point in time, those were illegal donations."

Egan alleges Porter only had $22,000 more cash on hand than Democratic candidate Dario Herrera during that reporting period because of the $37,650 in overages.

Porter maintains: "We've done nothing wrong."

"Once again it's a joke from a desperate opponent with his own ethical problems," Porter said. "The FEC has told us that we cleared everything up."

FEC officials would not comment on the complaint Monday, citing a commission policy not to discuss ongoing complaints until they are thoroughly investigated.

Hastie said the campaign did correctly report the contributions on the report filed Monday and said the only reason the contributions even drew the concern of the FEC initially was that the campaign hadn't had enough time to figure out the donor's intent.

"We received a lot of contributions toward the end of the period," Hastie said.

Many of the contributions that put an individual over the limit came in after March 25 during a reporting period that ended March 31.

Kent Cooper, vice president of the company that runs FECInfo, said campaigns often get confusing messages from donors.

"If someone writes a check on a joint checking account for $2,000 for the primary election, the campaign has to go back and ask the donor whether $1,000 is from them and the other $1,000 is from the spouse," said Cooper of the Washington, D.C.-based organization that tracks campaign contributions. "If something comes in two weeks before the close of books, that may need to be considered as the reason the donations haven't yet been redesignated."

But Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said he thinks most excessive donations are "the result of sloppiness."

Noble noted: "It is perceived as an advantage to report more money and show you are the better candidate."

Egan's complaint also refers to Porter's 2000 congressional campaign -- a race he lost to Shelley Berkley -- for violating disclaimer requirements.

That complaint, filed by Rory Reid, then chairman of the state Democratic Party, resulted in the FEC sending Porter's campaign an admonishment letter citing reason to believe that Porter's campaign acted improperly. The FEC took no further action in that case.

"Porter's public record shows a history of disregard for the core provisions of campaign finance law," Egan wrote in her complaint.

Egan asked the FEC to investigate the allegations and consider asking Porter to return the excessive amounts.

Porter chastised his opponent, saying the only reason the complaint was filed was on the advice of Washington consultants.

"It's inaccurate information on their part," Porter said. "If they would have waited until the new report was on the (FEC) website, they'd have known we did nothing wrong."

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