Democrats accuse McCain of breaking campaign spending rules
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Democrats announced Sunday a federal complaint accusing Republican White House front-runner John McCain, a crusader for ethics reform, of violating his own campaign finance law.
McCain is trying to withdraw from an agreement with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to cap his campaign spending in return for public money. He submitted to the agreement last year when his campaign was deep in trouble.
"The crucial issue here is John McCain's integrity. He's made a career out of posing as a reformer," Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean told reporters on a conference call.
"It's a classic example of someone who talks one way and does the other when it benefits him," said the former governor of Vermont, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004.
"It's not the first time nor the last time it's happened with John McCain," Dean added, after the New York Times last week suggested that the Arizona senator had had an improper relationship with a female lobbyist.
McCain, whose 2002 campaign finance reform angered many conservatives, is now trying to escape his FEC agreement after coming back from the political abyss last summer to emerge as the Republican front-runner.
After nearly running out of cash, the senator took out a bank loan in November on the promise of receiving public money. In return for that money, his campaign spending would be limited to 54 million dollars.
McCain has argued that he is not bound by the FEC pact as he has yet to receive any public money.
But on Thursday, the FEC suggested that having received loans on the strength of matching funds from the taxpayer, McCain could not now back out of the agreement going into November's general election.
That could be a major blow given that the Democrats are vastly outspending the Republicans. With money from donors still pouring in, Barack Obama is accused by McCain of reversing a pledge to accept public spending limits.
Dean said the DNC complaint would be filed with the FEC on Monday.
"The law is very, very clear: he cannot be let out of the matching fund program if he has already used the promise of matching funds for loan collateral," he said.
McCain has in all likelihood already surpassed the FEC limit, having declared campaign spending so far of 50 million dollars a month ago.
The promise of public money had already enabled McCain to put his name on the ballot in all 50 states, and "that's a two or three million (dollar) benefit," Dean said.
