Alex Conant, the spokesman for the Republican National Committee (RNC) had called the lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee against the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) as nothing but nonsense. Back in February, the DNC had filed a complaint with the FEC over GOP presidential nominee Senator John McCain of Arizona to see if he violated the federal spending limits. Now, the DNC has filed lawsuit against the FEC as an attempt to force it to launch an investigation.
This is the latest action that has been taken by the DNC as it filed the lawsuit with the United States District Court in Washington DC. They want to prove that McCain did violate spending limits by locking himself into campaign spending limits earlier in 2008 when he talked about opting out of public funding. On a side note, McCain challenged Democratic presidential co-frontrunner Senator Barack Obama of Illinois to opt out of public funding as well.
The complaint by the DNC dates back to GOP nominee John McCain securing a loan to keep his campaign afloat back in 2007. As a result, the DNC has claimed that McCain used the notion of six-million dollars in public funding would be used as collateral for the four-million bank loan.
However, it was explained several months earlier that McCain signed up for a life-insurance plan as collateral. It was explained that McCain had given several donor lists to the bank as collateral. But, the donor lists were only good if John McCain was alive.
However, McCain said he would not take federal funds as it looked that he would be the inevitable Republican nominee for the US Presidency. He said that if he took those funds, he it would put tight limits on spending money for the primary. After former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had dropped out of the GOP primary contest, it was between Senator John McCain and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
McCain had gained a huge lead over Huckabee in delegates. However, this was due to the delegate rules set by the RNC in which is a winner takes all contest. Huckabee gave the suggestion that that RNC should adopt the same delegate rules used by the DNC, which is proportional to how many votes the candidates receive in the contests.
As a result of McCain opting out of taking federal funds, DNC Chairman Howard Dean said he should be forced to accept the funds and the spending limits. Dean had accused McCain of using the idea of federal funds to match the collateral for the $4 million loan from the bank.
It is known that McCain’s candidacy was almost killed back in 2007. However, it had all changed when 2008 started since the New Hampshire primaries. At first, it looked as if the contest would be between McCain and Romney.
Back then, the option of public funding was on the table as a result of the campaign needing more funding to stay alive. It is revealed by the FEC filings that McCain spent almost $60 million in February.
On the RNC side, it said that the lawsuit was nonsense. Alex Conant, the RNC spokesman accused the DNC of trying to drag the courts into the situation. He called the lawsuit by the DNC as frivolous.
However, the FEC has its hands tied at the moment. The lawsuit by the DNC looks to make things harder for the FEC. Currently, US President George W. Bush and the Democratic controlled Senate are butting heads on the nominations of those to fill in the four out of the six seats in the FEC. As a result, the FEC cannot take any action.
The DNC says if the FEC continues to not be able to take action; it will go for a direct attack and sue McCain’s campaign.