Yesterday, CREW and Tennessee citizen Barbara Kaye Ginsberg filed an FEC complaint against the campaign committee of Rep. Marsha Blackburn. Today, The Memphis Commercial=Appeal covered the complaint:

A Washington watchdog group and a Germantown constituent have filed a complaint against U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn's campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission.

Barbara Kaye Ginsberg, 68, a retired homemaker and a resident of the 7th Congressional District since 1977, jointly filed the complaint with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, citing "serious violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act."

In April, Blackburn announced that she was revising most of the campaign finance disclosure reports she had filed since first seeking office in 2002 because she had failed to report $286,278 in expenditures and $102,044 in contributions.

Blackburn campaign spokesman Darcy Anderson responded to the complaint in a prepared statement: "Rep. Blackburn, in holding her campaign to a strict ethical standard, self-initiated a reconciliation of her campaign accounts. The reconciliation confirmed that all funds were properly raised and properly spent. She is confident that FEC review of those records will agree with this assessment."

Ginsberg was awaiting surgery and was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but her husband, David, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said she approached CREW because "she just felt like she wanted to do something to deal with corruption in high places."

Also, The Nashville City Paper weighed in: 

A Washington, D.C.-based good government group filed a complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission alleging Congressman Marsha Blackburn’s campaign and her treasurer violated federal campaign finance law.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said Blackburn (R-Brentwood) violated campaign finance law through failing to report more than $100,000 in contributions and about $286,000 in spending dating back to 2002.

“Given the Blackburn campaign committee’s longstanding pattern of filing inaccurate FEC reports and the large amounts of money involved, the FEC should step in, investigate the committee and sanction it appropriately,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, in a statement.

CREW and Germantown, Tennessee resident Barbara Kaye Ginsberg filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today against Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign committee, Marsha Blackburn for Congress, and the committee’s treasurer, Tea Hoffman. 

After receiving 33 letters from the FEC regarding possible reporting errors since Blackburn first ran for Congress in 2002, the campaign committee undertook its own internal audit, handled by Don McGahn, who has been nominated to become an FEC Commissioner. The review showed that the campaign had failed to file correct FEC reports since Rep. Blackburn first ran for office in 2002. The committee had received over $100,000 in unreported contributions, including a $1,000 contribution from former Rep. Duke Cunningham's campaign committee and had failed to report $286,000 in expenditures, including nearly $19,000 paid to Blackburn’s own daughter. Blackburn was forced to file amendments to all 32 previously filed FEC reports.

Blackburn’s campaign committee had been the subject of an FEC investigation in 2006, resulting in a $1,500 penalty. The campaign committee’s failure to report certain contributions was a focus of the investigation. Nevertheless, at the same time that investigation was underway – and as the Cunningham scandal was breaking – the campaign committee failed to disclose the Cunningham contribution. In fact, the Blackburn campaign did not disclose the Cunningham contribution until three and a half years after it was received.

CREW’s complaint alleges that Blackburn’s campaign committee violated federal campaign finance laws by failing to report the contributions and expenditures. The complaint also alleges that the campaign committee may have committed perjury by signing a statement that all information provided to the FEC to resolve the then pending enforcement matter was true and accurate when the committee had failed to report the contribution from Friends of Duke Cunningham.

CREW’s executive director Melanie Sloan said:

Given the Blackburn campaign committee’s longstanding pattern of filing inaccurate FEC reports and the large amounts of money involved, the FEC should step in, investigate the committee and sanction it appropriately.  In addition, if it turns out that the campaign committee deliberately hid the Cunningham contribution when negotiating a settlement with the FEC, the Department of Justice should consider whether a perjury prosecution is appropriate.