McSally amends fundraising filings

Rep. Martha McSally’s campaign amended fundraising reports for the last six months on Monday after reports that the campaign misstated millions of dollars of donations.

“Acting on behalf of the McSally Campaign, we filed amendments to the campaign’s Q1 and Q2 quarterly reports to more accurately reflect the cycle to date figure,” campaign treasurer Paul Kilgore told The Hill exclusively in a statement.

“The goal is to acknowledge clerical errors made on past reporting and, in working with the [Federal Election Commission], move as swiftly as possible to correct them. We will continue to work diligently toward that end.”

{mosads}The campaign acknowledged to The Hill on Friday that it realized that previous filing errors were carried through to new reports, making the figures “inaccurate.” Weston McKee, McSally’s campaign manager, emphasized that the quarterly fundraising numbers announced by the campaign were accurate.

A campaign aide also told The Hill Monday that the team has hired Elizabeth Beacham of the Clark Hill law firm in order to “ensure FEC compliance and help correct past errors.” Beachem formerly worked with the FEC.

 The Tucson Sentinel first reported on the filing discrepancies.

McSally raised $1.05 million last fundraising quarter and $644,000 for the first three months of the year. But instead of reporting the $1.69 million for the aggregate total of the year, the campaign reported $5.6 million in total donations over the first six months of the campaign.

Had that number been accurate, it would have outpaced every single member of Congress and put her in good company in the GOP presidential race. Her actual figures still represent a very solid haul for a freshman lawmaker—she outraised all House members outside of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the 2012 vice presidential nominee, according to figures from the Sunlight Foundation.

The freshman Arizona congresswoman has been dogged by FEC inquiries since she first ran for office in 2012. The FEC has formally requested clarification on her figures 14 times, all before this latest discrepancy. Most of those requests came before Kilgore took over as treasurer.

McSally is expected to run another close race in 2016, two years after she defeated Rep. Ron Barber (D) by less than 200 votes.