Being petrified of brown people doesn’t make it OK to use your PAC’s money to promote your presidential campaign and buy TV ads in New Hampshire.
Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, a California congressman, has used his political action committee to run New Hampshire television ads introducing himself to voters — in what some specialists say could be a violation of campaign finance laws.
In the ads, Hunter walks beside a huge wire fence and calls for it to be extended along hundreds of miles of the US border with Mexico. He then asks for viewers to “join with me, Duncan Hunter, at Peace Through Strength. Let’s make sure Homeland Security builds the border fence.”
At the end of the ad, viewers are encouraged to visit the PAC’s website, peacethroughstrengthpac.com. If viewers to go to the site a page appears that reads “please visit Duncan Hunter for President 2008″ and providing the link to his homepage, a move that can imply the PAC’s endorsement, another potential law violation. Campaign finance laws limit the use of PACs, which have much higher limits on individual donations than those imposed on presidential campaigns, to no more than $5,000 in spending on any presidential candidacy.
But in New Hampshire alone, Hunter’s Peace Through Strength PAC made two separate ad buys on WMUR-TV in Manchester totaling $17,575. Both purchases were made after Hunter opened his presidential committee, which is supposed to cover the costs of his run for the White House.
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“I don’t think [Hunter's use of both committees] is a loophole — it might be an outright violation,” said Stephen R. Weissman, associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute in Washington.
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