Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2007 > May > 11 > Entry
Martinez Named in Election Complaint
A non-partisan ethics watchdog group filed a complaint today with the Federal Election Commission alleging that U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez did not fully disclose information about nearly half of his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign contributors.
 |
| Photo by Rick McKay |
The complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) grew out of an FEC audit last month that found numerous violations of federal election laws during Martinez’s campaign in Florida.
“The violations committed by Martinez for Senate are unprecedented in both size and scope,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said in a statement.
“Basically, Mel Martinez broke the law in order to win an election. Now, years later, he is a sitting senator and the chairman of the Republican (Party). A failure by the FEC to severely sanction the Martinez for Senate campaign committee will demonstrate that violating the law pays,” Sloan said.
Martinez narrowly defeated Democrat Betty Castor in the 2004 election.
Martinez acknowledged last month that “mistakes were made,” but said, “we’ve corrected them and we’re moving forward. We take them very seriously.”
The FEC audit found that Martinez’s campaign did not list occupation and/or employer information for 46 percent of the people who contributed to his campaign. It also found that Martinez did not provide any information about donors who contributed approximately $320,000.
The FEC also reported that Martinez’s campaign accepted $313,325 in contributions that exceeded federal limits, and that he did not timely report more than $140,000 given 20 days before the election.. The Martinez campaign said last month that he had returned about $97,000 in excess contributions.
A CREW news release said the organization wants the FEC to sanction Martinez’s campaign for the amount of the violations, nearly $800,000.
So far, the FEC has not taken any action against the Martinez campaign as a result of the audit.
Permalink | |
