Press release from Carmen Darland, the Third District Democratic Party Chair:
Democratic Party Chair Submits FEC Complaint Against the Stutzman Campaign
(October 31, 2010) – A complaint has been filed with the Federal Election Commission against the Stutzman for Congress Committee. The FEC received the complaint October 21 and filed it October 28.
The Third District Democratic Party Chair, Carmen Darland, was responsible for filing the FEC paperwork on this matter, regarding a series of printed signs in the Kendallville area. The signs do not contain disclaimers to declare who is paying for the advertising, which is in direct violation of federal law. Photographs of the signs and a notarized letter detailing the locations were submitted as evidence to the FEC.
“I contacted the Field Manager of the Stutzman campaign and left a message on Monday, October 18. I also called the Chair of the Noble County Republican Party and spoke directly with him on this matter on Monday, October 18, the evening that the illegal advertising was discovered. Both the campaign and the Republican Party have had almost two weeks to disclose who paid for the signs or remove them, and they have done nothing to address this violation of federal law. A responsible candidate and campaign would have resolved this issue immediately, since federal election law has clearly been violated and the signs support his campaign.” said Chairwoman Darland.
The Stutzman campaign has received two other letters of non-compliance from the FEC for inadequate disclosure of the occupations of donors in the last year.
“There is a definite trend here. The Stutzman campaign has little regard for Federal Election Law and obviously does not want voters to know everything about his donors. The campaign still has not fully disclosed the occupations of donors on its campaign finance reports and thus far has taken no action to remedy the current issue.
While the current FEC matter won’t be fully resolved until after the election, it is important for the voters to think about Stutzman’s regard for following the rules prior to November 2. If he can’t follow the federal rules now, should he be making federal laws as a Congressman? If he won’t fully disclose where campaign money is coming from, what is he trying to hide?” said Darland.