Illinois: Hynes' campaign fined for raising money beyond limits
The Chicago Tribune reports: Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes' ill-fated 2004 U.S. Senate campaign has agreed to pay $76,500 in civil fines to settle Federal Election Commission complaints for violations involving campaign contributions and reporting, FEC officials said Tuesday.
The violations include accepting campaign contributions in excess of what was allowed by election law to retire campaign debt, failure to adequately report the campaign's debt and failing to get rid of contributions that the FEC determined were illegal, agency officials said.
Hynes, who won election to a third term as comptroller last month, finished second to Barack Obama in the March 2004 Democratic U.S. Senate primary. Candidates in the primary were allowed to raise up to $12,000 from individual donors--six times the normal limit--under recent federal campaign finance law changes aimed at making it easier to compete with wealthy self-funded candidates. ...
The FEC said that even after the primary contest had ended, Hynes continued to raise money at the higher level to retire his campaign debt, even though the higher limits ended once he was no longer a candidate. -- Hynes' Senate campaign will pay FEC to settle complaints | Chicago Tribune