Democrats charge Porter with campaign violation

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, July 11, 2000 | 10:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Republican congressional candidate Jon Porter violated federal election laws when he took $6,000 from a political action committee, according to charges by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Porter accepted the money March 30 from the Keystone Corporation's political action committee, a Las Vegas Republican donor group. Earlier the same day Porter, Porter's wife and three campaign aides had given the PAC $50 each.

According to federal rules, a PAC cannot give more than $1,000 to a candidate until it receives money from more than 50 donors. The donations from Porter, his wife and staff brought the number of Keystone's donors to 53.

"Porter and his campaign dropped in 250 bucks, pulled the lever, and hit a $6,000 jackpot," said DCCC spokesman John Del Cecato in a prepared statement.

The campaign gave the money back in May, Porter spokesman Josh Griffin said. Keystone has made only one other donation to Porter, a $1,000 gift in December, Griffin said.

This was the second complaint filed by the Democratic campaign committee on the issue.

Griffin said the DCCC, the party's chief campaign fund-raising arm for the House, must be scrambling to protect the lead in the polls held by Porter's opponent, Democratic incumbent Shelley Berkley.

"All of a sudden the DCCC is realizing that they have one of the most vulnerable members in Congress in Shelley Berkley," Griffin said.

The committee also says Keystone has not met federal campaign finance report deadlines three times since 1998.

"We hope they can get these bureaucratic filings (procedures) down and become a valued member of the political process," Griffin said.