Democrats Have 700 Pages Of Opposition Research On Zinke, All Ready For Interior Hearings
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Previous news reports by the Independent Record in Helena, Mont., questioned why then-candidate Zinke had posted campaign signs in a Santa Barbara suburb. Zinke told the newspaper that he and his wife, who is from the area, had moved back in the winter to care for her sick mother.
Another sticky point highlighted in the report centers on allegations that his campaign coordinated with a super political action committee that Zinke started in 2012. He later severed ties with the group a month before announcing his run for Congress. The Special Operations for America PAC, or SOFA, spent more than $175,000 in independent expenditures, which can include sending mail or buying ads, for Zinke from 2014 through 2016, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.org.
The DCCC document lays out a litany of complaints concerning Zinke's interaction with the super PAC. "He has made a mockery of campaign finance rules, which require Super PACs to operate independently from campaigns without 'coordination,'" it says. According to documents filed by SOFA with the Federal Election Commission in 2013, the PAC paid $5,000 to Continental Divide International LLC, a company of which Zinke listed himself as a co-owner in a 2012 document filed with the state of Montana. The DCCC report says FEC documents show that the super PAC paid the company nearly $40,000 between 2012 and 2014 in consulting fees and expense reimbursements.
In 2014, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC asserting that the super PAC and Zinke's campaign paid for and shared photos of the candidate, which he used in campaign materials. "It's fair to say Zinke broke new ground when he turned over the reins of his super PAC to a trusted ally, then ran for Congress and relied on the support of that super PAC," said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel of the Campaign Legal Center.
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http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060047876
