Democrats Plan to Complain to FEC About McCain

By Matthew Mosk
The Washington Post

The Democratic National Committee will file a complaint Monday with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has illegally blown through spending limits imposed by the presidential public financing system.

"This is a classic example of someone who talks one way and does the other," DNC Chairman Howard Dean said today. "Our purpose here is to get him to obey the law."

The complaint is based on a dispute between McCain, who appears headed toward his party's nomination for president, and the FEC, which notified him last week that it had not approved his request to withdraw from the public funding system.

McCain had applied for public funds last year when his campaign was running on fumes. After he won a series of early primaries, he requested to withdraw from the system. The FEC typically permits candidates to withdraw if they have not spent any of the public matching funds, or have not used the promise of federal money to obtain a loan.

The DNC plans to argue that McCain did obtain a loan based on the promise of repaying it with federal funds, party attorney Joe Sandler said. The Democrats also plan to claim that McCain cannot withdraw from the public financing system without the FEC taking up the matter; the commission made that contention itself in its letter to McCain. The FEC has been unable to consider McCain's request because it lacks a quorum. (Congress is deadlocked over the confirmation of four appointees to the six-member commission.)

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