Gerlach Fined For FEC Violations

Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-06) was fined $120,000 today by the Federal Elections Commission for outrageous reporting violations.  I reported these while blogging at another site in articles here, here and here.  He reported collecting $2 million more in campaign contributions for the 2006 election cycle than he actually had and was also caught with numerous other serious mistakes and errors in his reports.  His campaign treasurer, also the Chester County Treasurer, was replaced because of the rampant misreporting.

The problems were uncovered by his opponent's campaign back when they had locals running the operation and were doing good work.

Comments

[Lee Levan]

That seems like a pretty hefty fine; not a slap on the wrist. The FEC must have considered the violations to be rather serious. Does anyone know how frequently FEC fines are this high?

[John Morgan]

This is an unusually stiff fine. Very stiff. Gerlach tried to minimize it by saying it was the result of events 17 months ago but that doesn't wash. The FEC normally doesn't exact it's fines until after the election cycle so as not to affect the outcome of the election. The fact these violations got caught by the Murphy campaign early on doesn't minimize their importance. The size of the penalty illustrates that fact. It hurts to get hit with a fine of this magnitude.

[Joyful Alternative]

And can we assume the poor people of Chester County have a mess too, given that they have the same treasurer?