GOP questions Democratic candidate's campaign events

Thursday, April 13, 2006

A Republican campaign-finance complaint misses the mark in its targeting of Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner, the Burner campaign said Wednesday.

The state GOP has complained to federal election officials that Burner failed to report the financial arrangements concerning a videotape promoting her campaign and may have violated contribution limits. But Burner campaign Chairman Zach Silk said the videotape was put together by someone acting on his own without pay and does not run afoul of the law.


	Burner

Burner is running for the for the 8th District U.S. House seat now held by first-term Republican Dave Reichert. Because the district, in eastern King and Pierce counties, voted for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, the seat is considered vulnerable to a Democratic takeover.

The political group Eastside Democracy for America hosted a campaign appearance by Burner in Bellevue in October, the complaint says. Burner has posted the video of the appearance on her Web site. [Editor's Note: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Eastside Democracy for America also posted the video on its Web site.

(Note: Eastside Democracy for America was misidentified when this article was originally published.)

Eastside Democracy for America is the spawn of Democracy for America, a nationwide political action committee created by Howard Dean to foster his 2004 campaign for the presidency, the complaint says. But the status of the group is unclear because no state or federal disclosure forms for it can be found, the GOP says.

Democracy for Washington has registered with the state as a political committee, but has not filed reports of expenses or contributions, the complaint says.

Burner has not reported any payments to, or contributions from, the groups, the Republicans say.

In its complaint, the GOP questions whether the October campaign event and the production of the video conflict with federal restrictions on contributions from corporations or political action committees.

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