DNC Files Suit Against McCain
But that was no 120 days just now. And if they get the court to order the FEC to take action, doesn’t that restart the 120-day clock?
You see, under the statute, if a party files an FEC complaint, and the FEC doesn’t take action, in 120 days the party can prosecute the complaint directly in federal court. These suits, called “a8″ suits, don’t work if the FEC has taken action at all - even to just start the wheels of an investigation moving.
So I’m not sure why the DNC is rushing the procedure like this. Wouldn’t it be better to wait the 120 days out, and file on the merits during . . . gee I don’t know . . . the Republican Convention?
Well, waiting until the general election all but guarantees the DNC won’t get a ruling before the election and since their success on the merits doesn’t look good, I don’t think a court is going to impose an injunction on McCain saying he can’t get out of public funding. (imagine that, an order by a federal judge that a candidate has to use public money when the candidate doesn’t want public funds).
the DNC says he pledged the public funds to support a loan to his campaign, but his Form C and C1 note that the assets pledged as collateral are everything BUT public funds. Do they have something that indicates something different?
Comment by Matt Johnston — April 15, 2008 @ 4:23 pm