FEC asks Greenfield campaign for more information, campaign says donations were mislabeled

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - The Federal Elections Commission is asking for more information about donations made to Democratic candidates for Senate Teresa Greenfield, specifically about donations that appear to exceed the federal limit.

The regulatory agency sent her campaign a Request for More Information letter about donations over the federal limit, which is the same issue Greenfield’s campaign has used to attack her opponent Republican Senator Joni Ernst.

The FEC fined Ernst’s campaign around $15,000 in 2014 for accepting excessive contributions and failing to refund it to donors in a timely fashion and failing to accurately disclose debts on its original 2014 July Quarterly Report to the FEC.

According to the FEC’s website, the letter the Greenfield campaign received means the regulatory agency needs additional clarification or identifies an error, omission or possible prohibited activity.

In this instance, it was for donations from 18 different people over the federal limit per election.

The letters are a very routine practice for the regulatory agency. For example, both Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s campaign have received a double-digit number of these requests. Joni Ernst’s campaign has also received a double-digit number of the same letters as well.

Sam Newton, who is the communications director from the Greenfield campaign, said the campaign accidentally mislabeled all those donations for the primary election rather than differentiating between the primary and general campaigns.

He said the campaign has reviewed the letter and will submit an amended report with correct information.

Brendan Conley, who is the communications director for the Joni Ernst campaign, said Greenfield’s campaign is downplaying the issue and called her attacks on Ernst’s campaign finance violation hypocritical.

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