Thursday, March 25, 2010

FEC Raps Michele Bachmann Campaign for Sloppy Bookkeeping Again

By Karl Bremer

Sloppy bookkeeping long has been a hallmark of Michele Bachmann’s campaigns. But a recent Federal Election Commission “Request for Additional Information” is one of the worst examples yet.

In its latest 10-page admonishment of the self-described “former tax attorney” sent Feb. 18, the FEC cites four specific shortcomings in Bachmann’s year-end 2009 report:

  1. Numerous contributions that appear to exceed the legal limits.

  2. Contributions appear to have incorrect values in the “Election Cycle-to-Date” field.

  3. Numerous employer and occupation entries on the report are not acceptable.

  4. The report contains entries for contributions by more than one person, which also is unacceptable.



The FEC cited 71 improper entries and 18 unacceptable employer or occupation entries in Bachmann’s report, which covered the period from October 1, 2009-December 31, 2009.

“The acceptance of excessive contributions is a serious problem,” the FEC warned Bachmann. “Again, the committee’s procedures for processing contributions should be examined and corrected in order to avoid this problem. Although the Commission
may take further legal action, prompt action by you to refund, redesignate, and/or reattribute of the excessive amount will be taken into consideration.”

The enforcement agency also was critical of the campaign’s arithmetic.

“Failure to correctly total contributions received from a given source in the
election cycle could lead to acceptance of excessive contributions by the
committee,” the FEC cautioned.

A response from Bachmann’s campaign committee was due today, March 25.

“Failure to adequately respond by the response date noted above could result in an audit or enforcement action,” the FEC warned.

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