The Federal Election Commission is seeking clarification from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s campaign after finding a handful of discrepancies in its finance reporting — which could potentially amount to campaign finance violations — within the past three and a half years.
In a letter Wednesday, the FEC noted donations to the soon-to-retire Vermont Democrat from two political action committees and one individual, former-U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., which appear to have exceeded election-cycle limits.
Under federal law, individual donors and certain PACs are capped at donating $2,900 to a given candidate during an election cycle. U.S. senators are elected every six years.
According to the letter, Daschle donated $2,500 to Leahy in May 2019 and $2,900 in September 2021. Daschle, who spent more than half of his Senate career as the Democratic leader of the Senate, was voted out of office in 2005. He remains in Washington, working as a lobbyist and consultant.
Two Virginia-based PACs — Applied Research Associates PAC and Washington Resource PAC — donated $5,000 and $3,000, respectively, to Leahy this election cycle, according to the letter.
FEC letters of this type to campaigns are not unusual, and no enforcement action is necessary unless the campaign cannot adequately explain the reason for the discrepancies and is found to have violated federal law. Leahy’s campaign has until Jan. 12 to respond to the FEC.
Carolyn Dwyer, a spokesperson for Leahy’s campaign, told VTDigger via email on Thursday that “most often these are clerical or coding errors.” She said the campaign will respond to the FEC before the deadline.
