Feds want Grothman donations clarification

Even with election season over, there's still some last minute tidying up to do with campaign finance records -- and the Federal Elections Commission has a few items to clear up with Glenn Grothman.

In a letter sent last week, the FEC asked for clarification on Grothman's post-election campaign filing, which showed four individual contributors and and two committee contributions that appeared to exceed the legal limits.

At least two of those contributions -- $5,200 from former Sargento CEO Lou Gentine and $4,200 from former U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde -- appear to be due to redesignations for spouses. Both Hovde and Gentine said they charged the donations to their credit card with a signed statement noting that half the contributions came from their respective spouses.

The other two contributions came from J.J. Keller CEO James Keller, who gave $5,200, and former U.S. Senate candidate Russ Darrow, who donated $3,100.

Individuals are limited to $2,600 in donations to each candidate per election.

Grothman Treasurer Kate Lind said those individual issues likely came from the need to redesignate funds to spouses. She said while the donors are required to fill out forms to make that designation official, the paperwork doesn't always catch up with the filing deadline, especially for the post-general election period, which comes quickly on the heels of the election itself.

The Grothman campaign also received $2,500 from the campaign of U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy and $5,000 from Foxx PAC, a leadership PAC associated with North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx.

Candidate committees are only allowed to make a contribution of $2,000 per election per federal candidate. While leadership PACs do allow for $5,000 donations to candidates, the FEC said that Foxx PAC did not qualify as a "multi-candidate" committee and therefore had a lower limit.

Lind said the Duffy contribution should have been redesignated to handle primary debt instead. However, while she said since the FOXX PAC contribution was clearly marked for the general election, they would more than likely refund a portion of that PAC donation "just to keep it clean."

The FEC notices are often routine follow-ups to discrepancies in finance reports. Some of the alleged violations can result in amended finance reports or require refunds to some donors.

Grothman is not the only congressional candidate to receive a similar follow-up.

The campaigns for Grothman's Democratic opponent, Mark Harris, as well as for Duffy, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, and Duffy's Democratic opponent Kelly Westlund all had filing discrepancies that require further clarification.

Those clarifications, however, did not flag any excessive donations, simply miscalculations or other filing errors, the FEC said.

In total, the race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Petri saw candidates spend a combined $2.7 million from the primary through the general election.

Nearly half of that amount came from Grothman, who raised $1.15 million. Of that, Grothman loaned his campaign $159,850.Harris spent only about $275,000 in his defeat. Of that, he loaned his campaign $31,000 and spent $16,329 out of his own pocket.

Primary challengers Joe Leibham and Duey Stroebel comprised the remaining total spent on the race.

While Grothman received another $269,000 in the last few weeks of the campaign, he ended the race $188,600 in debt.

Despite the competitive nature of the primary and its lack of an incumbent, the Sixth District race was not the most expensive congressional race in Wisconsin. That designation goes to the First District race that pitted Ryan against Democrat Rob Zerban.

Ryan, who was just named chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, nearly tripled the expenditures of the Sixth District race himself, spending more than $7.8 million in his reelection bid.

Ryan's Leadership PAC, American Prosperity, also was a heavy spender in the last election cycle, having spent $961,000 to aid other GOP candidates and causes. That was the fifth-largest spending total by any of the congressional leadership PACs.

Reach Jason Smathers at 920-453-5167.