Added to his seemingly ‘lost’ campaign effort is his lost campaign money mangement…
The FEC’s letter, which focused on Team Herschel’s post-runoff report, opened with a paragraph that none of the campaign finance experts interviewed for this article had ever seen before—asking about tens of thousands of dollars in contributions that the campaign had shuffled over to a “recount” account, some as late as 11 days after Walker conceded the Dec. 6 runoff.
But as the letter notes, “It appears neither a recount was held nor did the committee disburse these funds for recount activities.”
The notice, addressed to Walker campaign treasurer Sal Purpurra, added that if the campaign didn’t “participate in a recount or recount activities,” then those donations “must be refunded or redesignated within 60 days from the date it becomes known that a recount will not occur.” All subsequent reports “should disclose the refund or redesignation of any recount donations,” the letter said, adding that “failure to remedy these donation[s] may result in impermissible contributions.”
Saurav Ghosh, director of federal reform at Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit that advocates for greater transparency in elections, called the notice “striking.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that,” Ghosh, a former attorney with the FEC’s enforcement decision, told The Daily Beast…