Conservative group fined over attacks on Kerry

March 01, 2007|Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- A conservative independent group that spent millions of dollars in ads against Democratic presidential candidate Senator John F. Kerry in 2004 will pay $750,000 to settle charges that it violated federal campaign laws.

The penalty, announced by the Federal Election Commission yesterday, is the third - largest in the history of the commission, which regulates election money.

The FEC's six commissioners approved the settlement unanimously.

The group, Progress for America Voter Fund, raised nearly $45 million in 2004, making it the best - financed Republican-oriented group in that campaign. The FEC said that it "failed to register and file disclosure reports as a federal political committee and accepted contributions in violation of federal limits."

Benjamin Ginsburg, a lawyer for Progress for America Voter Fund, said the group was not admitting guilt. He criticized the FEC for not setting clearer guidelines for independent groups that seek to influence elections.

At issue are nonprofit organizations called 527 groups, named after the section of the IRS code that governs their activities. During the 2004 campaign, several 527 groups emerged to criticize President Bush or Kerry . In December, the FEC settled cases against three other 527 groups -- liberal and conservative -- that acted in a similar fashion.

The FEC said that because the group ran ads specifically supporting Bush or against Kerry, it should have registered as a political committee and accepted donations under limits set by law, such as no more than $5,000 from individuals. Instead, the group accepted donations of $1 million or more from wealthy contributors. Among them were media entrepreneur A. Jerrold Perenchio, Texas builder Bob Perry, and Texas oilman and investor T. Boone Pickens.

In the 2006 congressional elections, Progress for America was also active but only ran issue ads that never mentioned a candidate -- a permissible activity. According to IRS records, the group raised nearly $6.2 million in that election cycle.