MAOS blogger and professional filer-of-complaints Chaz Stevens says he submitted a formal complaint to the Federal Elections Commission yesterday in connection with our coverage of Congressman Connie Mack's illegal campaign mailer incident.
Long story short, for the late-comers: Mack used taxpayer money to send 90,000 "franked" mailers to his constituents, which is legal. But more than 50,000 of them ended up outside of his district -- which is not. Mack blamed the company that sent the mailers, and it paid back the feds.
The House commission that oversees the mail program said Mack was in the clear with them, but the mailer (providing a "legislative update" to a year-old bill) could help Mack with his campaign for Senate, which could make it an FEC matter even though the mailer didn't mention his campaign. You can check out our post from last week to see why the free mail could be seen as an illegal campaign contribution.
The FEC's Office of the General Counsel will review the complaint to "determine whether it states a violation within the jurisdiction of the Commission," according to the FEC procedure outline, and if it does, Stevens and Mack will both be getting correspondence saying so. If Stevens has to amend his complaint, Mack will still get a heads-up. If it can stand as it is, Mack will have 15 days to respond.
Here's a copy of the complaint, which surprisingly does not refer to anyone as dingleberries or include any accusations of people being drunken idiots:
