FEC announces penalties for Simmons, Melancon

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday announced fines for misreporting campaign finances against Rep. Charlie Melancon’s (D-La.) 2004 campaign committee and former Rep. Rob Simmons’s (R-Conn.) 2006 campaign committee.

Melancon’s 2004 campaign committee was fined $42,000 for “failing to disclose all financial activity on its 2004 30-Day Post-Runoff Report.”

{mosads}According to the report, Melancon’s campaign originally reported just more than $50,000 in disbursements before later amending that report to show almost $656,000 in “additional disbursements.”

The 2006 campaign for Simmons, who lost his reelection bid to now-Rep. Joe Courtney (D), was fined $9,500 by the FEC for misreporting funds.

The FEC matters were taken up last year, but the reports were made available this week.

Two investigations against pro-gun rights groups that were initiated by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.

The FEC said that in both cases, one against the National Rifle Association and the other against the Gun Owners of America, it could find no evidence that either group had made illegal in-kind contributions to federal candidates.

The FEC also fined the group Republicans for Trauner (RFT) for “multiple provisions” resulting from the group’s involvement in Wyoming Democrat Robert Trauner’s race against Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.), which he narrowly lost.

“During the 2006 election cycle, RFT funded newspaper and radio ads and mailed flyers to homes throughout the state of Wyoming expressly advocating Trauner’s election,” the FEC summary read.

“The Commission found reason to believe RFT violated the Act by using the name of a federal candidate in the name of an unauthorized committee, failing to include adequate disclaimers on public communications, failing to register with the Commission in a timely manner, failing to file FEC disclosure reports on time and accepting excessive and corporate contributions.”