FEC Fines ACT $775,000 for Spending $100 Million in 'Soft Money' in '04 Race

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.democracy21.org/
http://www.democracy21.org/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={AC81D4FF-0476-4E28-B9B1-7619D271A334}&DE={1E6CA326-C218-4FEB-B277-33BFB08D8099}

The Federal Election Commission said Aug. 29 that it reached a settlement calling for a $775,000 fine against America Coming Together (ACT), a major Democratic-leaning political organization that the FEC said spent $137 million during the 2004 presidential election campaign.

ACT, which suspended operations in 2005, was a federal political action committee that also had a non-federal account registered under section 527 of the tax code. The ACT case is the latest in a series of settlements that the FEC has concluded with major so-called Section 527 groups active in 2004.

The FEC said ACT raised and spent over $100 million in unregulated "soft money" contributions. The agency concluded, however, that most of the group's finances should have been federally regulated "hard money" because its main aim was to defeat President Bush and elect Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) president.

ACT contended that it was free to use a large portion of soft money because its aim was to elect Democratic candidates at all levels--federal, state, and local--and its messages avoided "express advocacy" of the election of particular candidates.

An FEC statement emphasized that the penalty imposed on ACT was the third-largest in the commission's history. However, FEC spokesman Bob Biersack acknowledged in a phone interview with BNA that the amount was far less than the tens of millions of dollars in soft money that the FEC concluded ACT spent illegally.