FEC Draft Opinion Sides With McCain On Loan QuestionOdds are looking good Sen. John McCain will get a favorable ruling next week regarding his request to withdraw from the public campaign financing program.
Democrats complained when McCain sought to opt out of the program — and its spending limits — even after he took out a loan that hinged on his participation. A final decision comes next week.
Roll Call reports:
In the recently rebooted agency’s first major test, the FEC distributed a draft opinion Thursday siding with McCain, whose fate the commission’s three Democrats and three Republicans must still decide at the public meeting next week.
The agency’s legal department concluded that McCain did not break the law by taking the loan — and then exceeding contribution limits — despite warnings to the contrary from since-ousted FEC chairman David Mason, who had a tense back-and-forth with the campaign in early 2008.
“We believe that the matching payment act does permit candidates to withdraw after they have been declared eligible,” the FEC’s lawyers concluded in their new draft guidance. “Although no eligible candidate may exceed the expenditure limits, the statues simply do not say whether the commission has discretion to reverse its eligibility determination and decertify a candidate.”
