The Federal Election Commission deadlocked on an enforcement case charging that the 2008 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney accepted an illegal "in-kind" contribution worth $150,000, according to documents released by the FEC March 11.
The case—designated Matter Under Review (MUR) 5937—involved charges that the campaign improperly benefited by allowing a Romney supporter to charter a plane to fly people from Salt Lake City to Boston for a "national call day" that raised $6.5 million for Romney in 2007.
A complaint to the FEC had charged that the estimated cost of chartering a Jet Blue airliner—paid by Romney friend Kem Gardner—amounted to an in-kind contribution to the presidential campaign that was far above the $2,300 contribution limit.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, relied heavily on supporters from Utah in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination last year.
Party-Line Vote Blocks Action
Kathryn Biber Chen, an attorney with the law firm Patton Boggs and general counsel of the Romney campaign, told BNA March 11 that the campaign's actions were "entirely appropriate." She said the Romney campaign was glad that the FEC had decided to take no action on the enforcement matter.
Lawyers for the Romney campaign and Gardner had disputed the complaint and argued that the charter flight did not violate the law.
FEC documents indicated that commission staff attorneys believed the law was violated. The FEC attorneys proposed a settlement last year calling on the Romney campaign to pay a $61,000 fine.
Final approval of the settlement proposal was blocked by the FEC commissioners in January of this year on a deadlocked vote. The three FEC Democratic commissioners voted to approve the proposal or pursue further action in the case. The three FEC Republicans voted to take no further action.
The result followed a pattern in which action on several other recent FEC enforcement cases has been blocked by a deadlocked, party-line vote of the commissioners.
Counsel's Analysis Not Revealed
Details of the FEC counsel's proposed settlement in the Romney matter—other than the amount of the fine—were not included in the documents posted on the FEC's website March 11. A report from the FEC general counsel containing a "factual and legal analysis" of the matter—which is released in most closed FEC cases—was not released in this case. There also were no statements from the FEC commissioners explaining their votes.
The FEC did release a copy of the original complaint from Greg Sabine of Brockton, Mass., which cited news stories questioning whether the charter flight of Romney supporters constituted an illegal contribution.
The FEC also released response letters from attorneys for the Romney campaign and for Gardner, which said that no campaign finance laws were violated. A letter from Chen, the campaign's general counsel, and Audrey Perry, Chen's deputy, said that it is common for attendees at fund-raising events to bear their own travel costs. The letter said the Romney campaign did not request or arrange that anyone pay travel costs for any individual or group.
A response letter from an attorney for Gardner, Kirk Jowers of the law firm Caplin & Drysdale, said Gardner did not break any law by paying for the charter flight. The letter said that Gardner, while making his own travel arrangements from Salt Lake City to Boston, "learned that a huge group of his family and friends were planning on attending" the same Romney campaign events. Gardner had planned to charter a plane for his own travel and invited the others to accompany him.
Jowers' letter continued: "Just as Mr. Gardner had driven friends and family members to local candidate fund-raisers in the past, he looked forward to traveling with fellow Romney supporters to these Boston events."
By Kenneth P. Doyle
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