FEC: Congress Members Can Fund Vote Drives (Corzine)

[Nambe]

Elections - AP Senate

WASHINGTON - Wealthy members of Congress can give unlimited amounts of their own money to groups for get-out-the-vote drives even though they are barred from raising big checks for their campaigns or others, election officials said Thursday.

The Federal Election Commission's 5-1 ruling came in response to a request by Sen. Jon Corzine, a wealthy New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Corzine gave more than $2 million to Democratic causes in the 2001-02 election cycle before the nation's campaign finance law barred national party committees and congressional and presidential candidates from raising or spending corporate union and unlimited donations known as soft money.

Corzine asked the FEC whether he could still make big donations to groups conducting voter registration activities despite the law's broad soft-money ban. The FEC said yes — as long as he wasn't giving such big amounts that the organization would be considered financed by him. ..

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