BEFORE the FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION Public Citizen V
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BEFORE THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION Public Citizen v. MUR No. Quentin Nesbitt 1 Tanglewood Lane Cincinnati, Ohio 45224 Timothy Dodd, Treasurer Family First 4288 Armstrong Boulevard Batavia, Ohio 45102 Mark Valente III, Treasurer Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans P.O. Box 65796 Washington, D.C. 20035 Mark Valente III, Treasurer MIKE PAC P.O. Box 65796 Washington, D.C. 20035 Mark Valente III, Treasurer Carolina Majority PAC P.O. Box 65796 Washington, D.C. 20035 Mark Brenner, Treasurer Milead Fund P.O. Box 65796 Washington, D.C. 20035 Amy Myers, Treasurer Campaign for Working Families 2800 Shirlington Road, Suite 605 Arlington, Virginia 22206 and Geoffrey Davis for Congress 3161 Dixie Highway, Suite F Erlanger, Kentucky 41018 2 COMPLAINT 1. Public Citizen requests that the Federal Election Commission undertake an immediate investigation into, and enforcement action against, apparent past and potentially on- going contributions in violation of the limits of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended, by Quentin Nesbitt, a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, to the Geoffrey Davis for Congress committee. 2. Public Citizen also requests that the Federal Election Commission undertake an immediate investigation into, and enforcement action against, prior and potentially on-going practices of laundering illegal contributions on behalf of Quentin Nesbitt to the Geoffrey Davis for Congress committee by the following political action committees (PACs): Family First, Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans, MIKE PAC, Carolina Majority PAC, Milead Fund, and Campaign for Working Families. 3. Finally, Public Citizen requests that the Federal Election Commission undertake an immediate investigation into whether the Geoffrey Davis for Congress committee knowingly and willfully solicited or accepted the above-mentioned laundered contributions in excess of the contribution limits of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended. KENTUCKY’S 4TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT ELECTION 4. Geoffrey Davis is a candidate for the Republican party nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives in Kentucky’s open-seat race for the 4th Congressional District in the May 18, 2004, primary election. The Geoffrey Davis for Congress committee [EIN# C00369470], Joe Green (Treasurer), serves as the principal campaign committee of the candidate. 5. Geoffrey Davis is opposed in the 2004 Republican primary election by Kevin L. Murphy and John Kelly King. Whoever wins the Republican nomination is likely to face Nick Clooney, the only candidate running for the Democratic nomination, in the November 2, 2004, general election. 6. As of the April 2004 quarterly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Geoff Davis for Congress committee had raised total receipts of $1,087,693 and made total disbursements of $506,922 (including repayment of a loan by the candidate of $150,827), thus far in the election cycle. 7. As of the April 2004 quarterly reports, the Kevin Murphy for Congress committee had raised total receipts of $436,472 (including a loan by the candidate of $89,000) and made total disbursements of $271,319. 8. Over the same reporting period, the Vote King for Congress committee had raised total receipts of $17,921 and made total disbursements of $11,822. 3 FLOW OF FUNDS FROM QUENTIN NESBITT 9. Quentin Nesbitt, Founder and Chairman of Data Processing Sciences, a communications technology firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, made a total of $19,000 in contributions to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee and six federal PACs thus far in the 2004 election cycle.1 10. On February 26, 2003, Mr. Nesbitt made two separate contributions of $2,000 each to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee. One $2,000 contribution was allocated to Davis’ primary election, and the second was allocated to Davis’ general election, for a total of $4,000 to Davis’ campaign – the maximum contribution an individual is permitted to make to a federal candidate. 11. Of the remaining federal contributions from Mr. Nesbitt, $15,000 was contributed to six different political action committees, the full amount of which was turned over to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee by the PACs shortly after receiving the funds from Mr. Nesbitt, usually within nine days or less. 12. According to the FEC’s records, the six political action committees appear to have re- routed Mr. Nesbitt’s $15,000 in funds according to the following schedule: · Family First – Mr. Nesbitt contributed $5,000 to Family First on March 31, 2003. On the same day, Family First contributed $5,000 to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee. Family First received no other contributions that year, and made no other contributions to candidates or committees. The committee’s sole financial activity in 2003 was to receive $5,000 from Mr. Nesbitt and transfer the funds to the Davis campaign that same day. · Campaign for Working Families – Mr. Nesbitt contributed $2,000 to Campaign for Working Families on April 28, 2003, and $3,000 on June 10, 2003. Nine days later, on June 19, 2003, Campaign for Working Families contributed $5,000 to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee. · Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans (MIKER) and MIKE PAC – Mr. Nesbitt contributed $1,000 to MIKER and $1,000 to MIKE PAC on September 23, 2003. Both committees share the same treasurer, Mark Valente III, and the same mailing address. Seven days later, on September 30, 2003, MIKER contributed $2,000 to the Davis campaign. · Carolina Majority PAC – Mr. Nesbitt also contributed $2,000 to the Carolina Majority PAC on September 23, 2003. The Carolina Majority PAC has the same treasurer and mailing address as MIKER and MIKE PAC. Seven days later, on 1 In addition to Quentin Nesbitt’s $4,000 in direct contributions to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee and another $15,000 to federal PACS and leadership committees in the 2004 election cycle, Mr. Nesbitt also made a total of $3,000 in campaign contributions to the following federal candidates: Rep. Bob Barr ($500 on 5/01/03), Sen. Bill McCollum ($500 on 4/14/03), Portman for Congress committee ($1,000 on 1/20/04), Robinson for Congress ($500 on 6/23/03), and Marvin Scott for U.S. Senate ($500 on 9/02/03) 4 September 30, 2003, the Carolina Majority PAC contributed $2,000 to the Davis campaign. · Milead Fund – Mr. Nesbitt contributed $1,000 to the Milead Fund on September 23, 2003, the same day that he made contributions to MIKER, MIKE PAC, and the Carolina Majority Fund, with which Milead shares the same mailing address. Seven days later, on September 30, 2003, the Milead Fund contributed $1,000 to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee, the same day that the other PACs that had received Mr. Nesbitt’s funds on September 23 funds contributed the same amount to the Davis campaign. 13. In all, Mr. Nesbitt appears to have been accountable for $19,000 in direct and indirect contributions to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee in 2003. FINANCIAL ACTIVITY OF THE SIX PACs 14. Family First. 4288 Armstrong Boulevard, Batavia, Ohio 45103 [C00335364]. Timothy Dodds, Treasurer. 15. Family First is a political committee originally founded in 1998 by Timothy Dodds as a group to support or oppose candidates for state and federal office based on conservative religious views on abortion and family issues. [http://www.familyfirstpac.com/] 16. In the 2004 election cycle (as of the March 31, 2004 reporting period), total receipts of Family First amounted to $5,000 – all from Mr. Nesbitt – and total contributions by Family First to candidates amounted to $5,000. Both the receipt of $5,000 from Mr. Nesbitt and the committee contribution of $5,000 to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee occurred on March 31, 2003. The only other financial activity reported by the committee in 2003 was $6 in operating expenditures for each quarterly reporting with the FEC ($6.20 for the October 2003 quarterly filing), for a total of $24.20 in operating expenses. Mr. Nesbitt’s contribution was the first the political committee had received in 15 months, since December 20, 2001. As of March 31, 2004, Family First had not received any contributions from any other source since Mr. Nesbitt’s contribution. 17. Campaign for Working Families, 2800 Shirlington Road, Suite 605, Arlington, Virginia, 22206 [C00325076]. Amy R. Myers, Treasurer. 18. Gary Bauer formed Campaign for Working Families (CWF) in 1996 to represent the interests and values of America's traditional families in the political arena. Campaign for Working Families describes itself as a non-partisan political action committee dedicated to electing pro-family, pro-life and pro-free enterprise candidates to federal and state offices. [http://www.cwfpac.com/mission.htm] 19. In the 2004 election cycle (as of the April 16, 2004 reporting period), total receipts of Campaign for Working Families amounted to $708,369, total expenditures amounted 5 to $416,651, with total contributions to federal candidates amounting to $16,500. CWF has so far made contributions to only five Republican candidates in the 2004 election cycle, including a $5,000 contribution to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee on June 19, 2003 – nine days after receiving the second installment of Quentin Nesbitt’s $5,000 contribution. Most of the committee’s support for candidates has been in the form of independent expenditures. 20. Milead Fund, P.O. Box 65796, Washington, D.C., 20035 [C00377663]. Mark Brenner, Treasurer. 21. Milead Fund was formed as a leadership PAC for Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.). It shares the same post office box with the Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans, MIKE PAC, and Carolina Majority PAC, described below. 22. In the 2004 election cycle (as of March 31, 2004), total receipts of Hoekstra’s Milead Fund amounted to $10,855, total expenditures amounted to $14,923, with total contributions of $13,500 to Republican federal candidates, including the $1,000 contribution to the Geoff Davis for Congress committee on September 30, 2003.