GOP files lawsuit against a DFA group in WA and Darcy Burner...

[madfloridian]

And wow! is that group fighting back, and Darcy Burner as well. All the Republicans know how to do is attack when they are cornered. Shades of Tom DeLay...I remember when he threatened to sue DFA as well.

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2006/04/scared-of-darcy-burners-campaign-state.html

The Washington State Republican Party (WSRP), incredibly nervous about the strength of Darcy Burner's campaign in the 8th Congressional District, has filed a frivolous complaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging that federal election laws were violated. The GOP complaint, which was apparently filed yesterday, is aimed at legal volunteer activities conducted by private citizens, including NPI's own Media & Communications Director, Andrew Tsao.

The GOP alleged that Eastside Democracy for America (DFA) paid for a campaign event that was not listed in any of Burner's federally-mandated campaign disclosures, and produced and distributed a videotape of the event.

And NPI is mentioned...is that Rosenberg's media group, part of the Democracy Alliance?

Eastside Democracy for America is not a 527, a PAC, non-profit organization, company or corporation of any kind We are an informal group of private citizens who gather regularly to work together towards an equitable, just, free and economically sustainable America by taking local political action towards that goal. Eastside Democracy for America was inspired by the grassroots efforts of the Howard Dean campaign in 2004, and by the PAC Democracy for America (“DFA”). However, we have no affiliation, legal or organizational, with Democracy for America. We conduct no regular business with DFA, receive no funds, provide no funds to them, nor are we beholden to any DFA mandates, policies or programs. We use freely available tools that are posted on the DFA website for organizing, identification and political activities.

Andrew Tsao, co-organizer of Eastside DFA and producer of the video materials mentioned in the FEC complaint, is a private citizen and registered Democrat who resides in Bellevue, Washington. He received no funds from the Darcy Burner campaign to produce the videos. He produced the video with volunteer efforts, with equipment he owns privately, and edited, duplicated and distributed the videos entirely on his own. The total out of pocket expenses for producing both videos mentioned in the FEC complaint was less than $200.00.

And Darcy responded quickly as well:

Darcy Burner's campaign reacted swiftly.

"Because of people’s desire for change, hundreds of people helped Darcy raise twice as much as Congressman Reichert last quarter. This obviously spooked the Republican," said Zach Silk, campaign manager for the Darcy Burner campaign, who denounced the attack.

Darcy lined up in front of McDermott to be introduced at the DNC event with Dean in WA recently.

[napi21]

1. I was part of the Dean Campaign in Ga. when he was a candidate.

I must tell you, the one single thing they hammered home constantly was that we MUST comply with all the FEC regs.

These Pubs are in panic mode, and they figured a shot across the bow would help.

GUESS WHAT! IT WON'T!

I'm glad to see the Dems are fighting back instantly. That's what Dean tries to teach all of them. Never ignore an accusation, and when you fight back, you do it with all you've got!

[madfloridian]

2. There is a video on her site...the one talked about by the GOP.

Which they say she took down. But she took it down because it was not recent, but it is back up. I am having to update my QT viewer to see it.

[madfloridian]

3. Tremendous video by this lady.

"Republicans are crowing that Darcy's campaign "tacitly admitted" to violating election laws because the video has been removed from Darcy's website. But NPI has learned that the video was previously removed because it was outdated, having been created in October of 2005, which was more than six months ago. The campaign was planning on adding a new video to the website soon.

UPDATE: The original video has been restored and is now once again available at Darcy Burner's website

Republicans have nothing credible with which to attack Darcy Burner's campaign, so they have resorted to picking through public records, making personal attacks, and filing frivolous complaints with the Federal Election Commission.

That's not what the voters in the 8th Congressional District care about. The voters in the 8th care about Dave Reichert's record, and that's exactly what this campaign will be about."

[madfloridian]

4. This was filed yesterday.

I remember the DeLay suit against DFA, or the threat of one. It worked then because Time Warner took the ad off the air. Probably wouldn't work now.

I wonder if his attack on Mehlman instigated this. Two suits against DFA in a couple of years seems excessive.