Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) was caught in apparent violation of federal campaign finance rules. Specifically, she evidently accepted significantly higher amounts than allowed from individual donors for single elections. Overall, Boebert’s campaign “accepted as much as $30,000 in contributions that exceed federal campaign finance limits,” the Colorado news outlet known as The Daily Sentinel explains. Individual donors are permitted to give no more than $2,900 for federal candidates in each election cycle. (Primary and general elections are considered separately in this framework.)
The improper donations — spread across 20 individual incidents — were recorded in the first quarter of this year, and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently wrote to Boebert’s campaign, spotlighting the apparent violations and requesting more information. The FEC “notice requests information essential to full public disclosure of your federal election campaign finances,” commission senior campaign finance analyst Shannon Ringgold wrote in the missive to Boebert’s campaign, adding: “Failure to adequately respond by the response date noted above could result in an audit or enforcement action… Although the commission may take further legal action concerning the acceptance of excessive contributions, your prompt action to refund or redesignate and/or reattribute the excessive amount will be taken into consideration.”
New: Jan. 6 committee on Rudy Giuliani expected no-show tomorrow: “Giuliani is an important witness to the conspiracy to overthrow the government and he remains under subpoena. If he refuses to comply the committee will consider all enforcement options.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 6, 2022
Boebert has to act on the issue by June 8. The reference Ringgold made to re-designating or re-attributing donations refers to the possibility for the Boebert campaign to — with the explicit, written consent of the original donor — reallocate money to other elections to get individual donation totals back at or below the legal maximum. Shifting the designation for particular donations obviously doesn’t do away with the requirement for individual donors’ totals for each election to be below that limit. Boebert has been mired in serious campaign finance issues before — last year, personal rent and utility charges Boebert incurred were (mistakenly) originally paid with campaign funds. Four total charges were involved in that mix-up — two were for $2,000, and two were for $1,325, with one of each on May 3 and June 3 last year. Each individual charge was identified on an original filing as a “Personal expense of Lauren Boebert billed to campaign account in error.” The filing added in each case that the money had been reimbursed. Later campaign disclosures identified the larger sums as for rent and the smaller ones as for “rent/utilities.”
New: Oath Keeper William Wilson charged with seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding over the Capitol attack on Jan. 6 — with apparently multiple Quick Reaction Force teams setup at multiple hotels https://t.co/Hd11irTefP
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 4, 2022
Election Day in the Republican primary for the seat Boebert currently holds is coming up, and recently, a Colorado judge upheld the candidacy in that race of Republican state Sen. Don Coram, whose eligibility had been challenged by a group of voters including at least a couple of documented Boebert supporters on the basis of supposedly faulty signatures associated with him getting on the ballot. Boebert is one of the most far-right members of Congress — and someone who seems more interested in making a name for herself than completing actually meaningful work for her constituents.
New: House Republican Mo Brooks refuses Jan. 6 committee request for cooperation: “At one time I would have voluntarily testified before the Nancy Pelosi Witch Hunt Committee… But that time has long passed.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 2, 2022
