Former Rep. Cliff Stearns dinged as FEC cracks down on ‘zombie’ campaigns

Date
Publication
Roll Call

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit campaign finance watchdog, alerted the FEC to Stearns’ irregular spending in a 2017 complaint. The filing alleged Stearns began spending thousands from his dormant campaign committee at the Capitol Hill Club, a private social club for Republican lawmakers near the U.S. Capitol, soon after he registered to lobby. The campaign finance watchdog raised concerns about Stearns directing funds from his defunct campaign committee to lawmakers who oversee the same policy issues he lobbies on, but it appears the FEC did not find probable cause that those payments violated the law, Florida Politics reported. 

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