The Morning Call: After FBI raid, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski's campaign fund spent more than $80,000 on lawyers

Federal campaign committees must disclose the purpose of any expenditures of more than $200, said Paul Seamus Ryan, deputy executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. Acceptable descriptions include dinner expenses, salary, media and polling. "Purpose unknown" is not acceptable, he said.

The FEC should investigate the matter to get to the bottom of the expenditure to see if the money was used or disbursed unlawfully, Ryan said. But the FEC doesn't aggressively investigate or penalize committees for filing problems, he said.

"In recent years, I've seen the FEC ignore much, much bigger apparent violations," Ryan said. "So it's difficult to envision the FEC going hard after Mayor Pawlowski. The greater likelihood is that this reporting violation will be settled with a relatively small fine."

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