September 20, 2007

Contact: Naomi Seligman Steiner 202.408.5565 nseligman@citizensforethics.org

20 Sep 2007 // Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Ted Poe for Congress, the principal campaign committee of Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), alleging multiple egregious violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and FEC regulations.

The complaint is based primarily upon the Commission’s recent audit of Ted Poe for Congress, which revealed that the campaign committee consistently failed to comply with the disclosure provisions of FECA and FEC regulations during the 2003-2004 election cycle. Over the seven-month period leading up to the November 2004 election, Ted Poe for Congress received no fewer than five written warnings from the Commission that the campaign was failing to properly identify its contributors.

The FEC’s Audit Division found that Ted Poe for Congress had violated FECA and FEC regulations by failing to disclose occupation and/or employer information for an astonishing forty percent (40%) of the individuals who contributed to the campaign - individuals who contributed more than $450,000, or more than one-quarter of the entire $1.7 million raised by Ted Poe for Congress during the 2003-2004 election cycle.

The Audit Division also found that Ted Poe for Congress failed to provide any contributor information at all for an additional $200,000 in contributions that were made to Ted Poe for Congress through two-joint fundraising committees, the 2004 Joint Candidate Committee II and the Team Texas Committee.

Altogether, Ted Poe for Congress failed to disclose the source of over $650,000 in contributions - more than a third of all the money raised by the committee during the entire 2003-2004 election cycle.

“Since an audit of his 2004 campaign by the FEC's Audit Division has not convinced Rep. Poe to comply with federal election law, perhaps a full-fledged investigation by the FEC's Enforcement Division will prove more persuasive,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today.

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions.
For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Naomi Seligman Steiner at 202.408.5565/nseligman@citizensforethics.org.

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