Watchdog group, Germantown woman file FEC complaint against Rep. Blackburn

11 Jun 2008 // A watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a Germantown constituent have filed a formal complaint against U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn's campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission.

Barbara Kaye Ginsberg, 68, a retired homemaker and a resident of the 7th Congressional District since 1977, jointly filed the complaint citing "serious violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act."

Blackburn campaign spokesman Darcy Anderson responded in a prepared statement: "Rep. Blackburn, in holding her campaign to a strict ethical standard, self-initiated a reconciliation of her campaign accounts. The reconciliation confirmed that all funds were properly raised and properly spent. She is confident that FEC review of those records will agree with this assessment.

"In regards to the merit less complaint filed by the liberal partisan group CREW, Rep. Blackburn is not surprised and unimpressed. This is an election year and conservative women are prime targets for Democrat attack."

Ginsberg was awaiting surgery and was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but her husband, David, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said she approached CREW because "she just felt like she wanted to do something to deal with corruption in high places."

In April, Blackburn contacted reporters to announce that she was revising most of the campaign finance disclosure reports she had filed since first seeking office in 2002 because she had failed to report $286,278 in expenditures and $102,044 in contributions.

At her meeting with The Commercial Appeal, she had her lawyer, Donald F. McGahn, explain the situation. McGahn is currently one of President Bush's nominees to fill one of four vacancies on the FEC, which can't act on a complaint at the moment because it doesn't have a quorum.

Blackburn sought to characterize her dealings with the FEC as a voluntary acknowledgement of error and a spokesman said she did not expect her campaign to be fined.

"I think this is one of those things that's going to end up being a helpful thing for us," Blackburn said at the time. "We chose to do this. We brought it forward."

The CREW complaint notes that in October 2005, the campaign committee and its treasurer, Tea Hoffman, acknowledged "reporting errors" through their lawyer to the FEC's Alternative Dispute Resolution Office, and said they had taken "remedial measures to ensure against future errors."

At that time, they entered into a negotiated settlement, paid a $1,500 fine and agreed to send a campaign staffer to a seminar on compliance with FEC regulations.

The CREW complaint notes that, in April, Blackburn's campaign acknowledged more than $440,000 in unreported or incorrectly reported receipts and expenditures.

It also noted that press accounts had reported the campaign had failed to report a $1,000 contribution in 2004 from Friends of Duke Cunningham, the committee of the former California congressman now serving time for bribery. The CREW complaint notes that the Cunningham committee contribution was finally reported on April 16 of this year.

CREW is asking for an investigation and audit of the campaign's finances.

West Rogers Strategic, the public relations firm that represents Blackburn's opponent, Tom Leatherwood, in the Aug. 7 Republican primary election, has done its own review of the Blackburn campaign filings and notes that they failed to report $121,779 to Blackburn's daughter, son-in-law and his political consultancy firm.

"Based on the revised reports," WestRogers says in a memo, "total funds paid to Paul Ketchel, Mary Morgan Ketchel, Political Concepts and MK Consulting total $400,438."

Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the FEC, said the complaint will be reviewed and sent to the Blackburn campaign for comment before the office of general counsel makes a decision about recommending whether there is "reason to believe" a violation of the law has occurred. If it makes such a recommendation, an investigation can be authorized with four affirmative votes of the six-member commission.