A federal agency fined a Democratic senator’s campaign committee $27,000 for the untimely resolution of excessive contributions, according to a Raw Story review of federal campaign records.
The campaign committee for Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) must pay the civil penalty by March 8 related to the issue of “failing to remedy excessive, prohibited and other impermissible 2020 general and runoff election contributions, totaling $363,272.43, within the permissible timeframe,” according to a Feb. 14 letter from the Federal Election Commission.
The negotiated settlement and letter addressed to attorney Graham M. Wilson, representing Jon Ossoff for Senate and its treasurer, Steven Mele, stated that the campaign resolved all donation issues by issuing refunds — just not by federal deadlines.
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"Last year the FEC notified the campaign committee that following the unprecedented 2.8 million donations received in the historic runoff election, the campaign’s compliance vendor had failed to refund contributions, as they were contractually obligated, within 30 and 60 day requirements because of the obvious logistical challenges associated with the high volume of contributions,” Jake Best, a spokesperson for Ossoff’s campaign, said in a statement to Raw Story.
“As the settlement makes clear, all contributions discussed were refunded, just not within 30 and 60 days, and the compliance vendor has taken full responsibility for the delay, is covering the total FEC penalty, and will participate in additional mandatory training to ensure they do not make this mistake again," Best said.
Contributions to a candidate’s committee could not exceed $2,800 total during the 2019-2020 election cycle, as noted in the negotiated settlement letter.
The committee said it “has a strong commitment to compliance” with the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, according to the letter.
In addition to paying the civil penalty, “in effort to avoid similar errors in the future,” Ossoff’s committee agreed to “develop and certify” a policy document for its external compliance vendor within 30 days and to “retain an outside consultant to review all compliance procedures and conduct a training with those responsible for preparing and filing its reports” within 90 days, the letter said.
“The Committee states it has facilitated conversations with its compliance vendor reiterating the Committee's internal policies for identifying and remedying excessive, prohibited and other impermissible contributions,” the letter said.
Ossoff beat the Republican incumbent, former. Sen. David Perdue, in a 2020 runoff with 50.6 percent of the vote, according to CNN. At 37, Ossoff is the youngest member of U.S. Senate and one of the few millennial or Gen Z members of Congress.
