Elections commission threatens action over NC congressional candidates’ finance reports
The Federal Election Commission sent letters to several of North Carolina’s congressional candidates in recent weeks warning them to fix their campaign finance reports or face possible consequences.
The letters went to U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, state Sen. Jeff Jackson, state Rep. Charles Graham and Courtney Geels, all of whom are seeking U.S. House seats and won the nomination of their party in the May 17 primary election.
Their errors, omissions and problems included failing to file a report, collecting too much money from a single donor or campaign, listing the candidate as a vendor being paid by the campaign or not explaining why the campaign reimbursed a candidate.
The regulatory agency gave each candidate a date by which to respond and said if they fail to do so they could face audits, fines or other possible action against their campaigns.
Missing report
Graham failed to file his pre-primary report altogether, according to the FEC. The report is meant to give voters a look at where his money came from and how he spent it in the days leading up to the primary.
Graham is a Democrat running to represent the 7th Congressional District that includes Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender, Robeson and part of Cumberland counties. He will face incumbent U.S. Rep. David Rouzer in the general election on Nov. 8.
The FEC wrote Graham’s treasurer, James Hunt, on May 6, telling him he had four days to turn in the report before they made the letter public. From there they said Graham’s campaign would start to incur civil penalties, an audit and possible legal action.
On Wednesday, Graham’s finance director Ian McDermott told The News & Observer that the campaign works with a “reputable compliance and accounting firm” to manage quarterly reporting.
“There was a slight miscommunication that led us to believe that our pre-primary report had been filed successfully, when it indeed had not,” McDermott said. “The accounting firm is reaching out to the FEC to ensure this situation is rectified.”
The letter is the third Graham’s campaign has received from the FEC since launching his election bid.
In a year-end report, Graham failed to include a description of why certain disbursements were made, the FEC said. In Graham’s July quarterly report, the FEC warned the campaign to note whether a loan to the campaign came from Graham’s personal funds or a financial institution.
Too much money
The FEC told both Manning and Jackson they had collected too much money from a single donor. A campaign cannot collect more than $2,900 from a single person per campaign cycle.
In Manning’s case, Elizabeth Cone donated to Manning the full amount twice under her legal name and a nickname, according to the FEC. Robert L. Page also donated the full amount twice, the agency said.
Manning’s spokeswoman Hailey Barringer said that the issue has been resolved. The money had been misattributed as two donations in the primary when one donation was intended for the primary and the other was intended for the general election. The clarification will be noted in the next filing due on July 15.
Manning’s campaign also received a $4,000 donation from the campaign of U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, a Democrat representing California. Campaigns can only give $2,000 to each other.
Barringer said Manning’s campaign made the same correction as it did on the independent donors and that correction has already been noted in a filing published in May, which The N&O independently verified.
Manning, a Democrat from Greensboro, is running for reelection in the 6th Congressional District that includes Guilford, Rockingham and parts of Caswell and Forsyth counties. She will face off against Republican Christian Castelli in the general election.
Two campaigns, two donations?
In Jackson’s case, the FEC found that he had collected several excessive donations.
Jackson’s campaign trajectory makes the double collections more complicated. Currently, Jackson is seeking a U.S. House seat to represent parts of Gaston and Mecklenburg counties for the newly drawn 14th Congressional District. But Jackson, until December, had been a U.S. Senate candidate seeking the Democratic nomination before dropping out of the race.
Jackson told The N&O Wednesday his campaign is sorting through whether some of the donations might be from people who donated to his Senate campaign and later to his House campaign, or whether the campaign missed that donors gave too much money because they used different names when donating.
The FEC questioned several contributions to Jackson. For example, it asked whether a man named John Hayden Boyd is the same as Hayden Boyd. John Boyd donated $1,500 to Jackson’s campaign, and Hayden Boyd donated another $2,000.
The FEC also asked the Jackson campaign to clarify a reimbursement to a donor. The donation was made for the primary election, but when the campaign reimbursed the donor, the campaign marked it as a general-election donation, according to the reports.
“We’ll have an answer to them by the deadline,” Jackson said. His campaign’s response is due June 16.
Too little information
Meanwhile, Geels, a Republican from Hillsborough, received letters from the FEC stating that she did not provide enough information about her campaign funds from the past five months.
Geels is a nurse running to represent North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District that includes Alamance, Durham, Granville, Orange, Person and parts of Caswell counties. She faces state Sen. Valerie Foushee, the Democratic nominee, in the general election.
The FEC sent Geels’ treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, two letters saying that Geels’ April quarterly report and her 12-day pre-primary report did not follow FEC guidelines.
In both reports, Geels’ campaign listed her name in place of business entities when she paid out-of-pocket for a campaign expense. The FEC requires campaigns paying over $200 to the same business in an election cycle to list the vendor, its address, the date, amount and purpose of the payment.
In Geels’ case, she substituted herself and her address for those of the vendor and wrote descriptions such as, “In-kind for food and event fees,” but not the exact business and location from which those items came.
Some of the notes called out specific places or events, like “MacGregor Downs,” “Pleasent Green Community Center,” and “C-PAC,” without further details. Others listed security, office supplies, travel and food and something called Egypt X.
In her April quarterly report, Geels also gave her campaign $16,655.23 between Jan. 1 and March 23. She reimbursed herself $3,583.75 without explanation in two payments on Jan. 10 and March 23. The line items’ explanations were “expense reimbursement” which the FEC does not allow.
Geels said she wasn’t concerned about the letters and had receipts for all her expenses. She said they just received the letters Tuesday and would get a response back to the FEC by their due date of July 5.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Rep. Kathy Manning’s campaign says it corrected campaign finance reports by designating three primary-election contributions as general-election contributions. An early version of this article misstated how Manning’s campaign corrected the error.
