Pelosi PAC Hit With $21K Fine

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/49_75/news/4293-1.html (subscription required)

By Brody Mullins ROLL CALL STAFF

A controversial fundraising committee run by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was slapped with a $21,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission for enabling Pelosi to funnel more than $100,000 in illegal contributions to Democratic candidates in late 2002 as she was vying to become Democratic leader.

Despite the fine, Pelosi has not shuttered her second political action committee, new campaign finance reports show. Instead, she used the remaining $140,000 in the Team Majority PAC to subsidize other fundraising expenses, such as the $300,000 salary of her top fundraiser and the cost of renting an MCI Center luxury box for an event at a Simon & Garfunkel concert.

Meanwhile, the new reports show that at least two other Democratic candidates were penalized for accepting contributions from the Pelosi committee in the weeks before the 2002 elections.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and unsuccessful Iowa Democratic candidate Julie Thomas each paid $2,500 fines last year for failing to promptly return $5,000 checks to the Pelosi account. Van Hollen and Thomas had already received the maximum $10,000 donation from Pelosi’s long-established political action committee, PAC to the Future.