By Jon Kamman, Arizona Republic
September 11, 2006
Three years after launching an inquiry into the legality of portions of Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi's campaign funding, federal officials have ended their investigation with a decision to take no action.
In dropping the matter, the Federal Election Commission in effect cleared Renzi of financial wrongdoing in his first campaign, in 2002.
"For the past three years, liberal operatives have attempted to smear my name with theatrical blogs and desperate and erroneous allegations," Renzi, a Republican, said in a written statement.
"With this case closed, I hope the Democrats will end their shrill politics of distortion and begin talking about the issues that matter most to rural Arizona," he said.
The federal agency began looking into the account in 2003. After a 15-month audit, it contended that the lawmaker had unlawfully funneled $369,000 from two of his corporations into the campaign. Renzi has maintained that the corporations paid him the money and it was his to do with as he pleased.
Corporations are barred from making campaign contributions, but candidates may contribute to or lend their campaigns an unlimited amount.
Questions about the case have dogged Renzi, who represents the state's rural 1st Congressional District, since the audit was released six weeks after he won re-election in 2004.
Fighting the allegations was expensive. Financial reports filed by Renzi's campaign committee show it spent at least $200,000 on legal and accounting fees while defending against the allegations.
Democrats, who choose a nominee from among five candidates today to run against Renzi in the Nov. 7 general election, had been expected to use the issue as at least an undercurrent of the campaign.
A national political watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has listed Renzi as one of the 13 "most corrupt" members of Congress, largely on the basis of the allegations in the audit. The group was not immediately available for comment on the dropping of the case.
Last week, a Flagstaff Democrat filed a formal complaint with the election commission seeking action on the allegations, but the agency already had notified Renzi that it was closing its file. Renzi announced the development Friday.
Ellen Simon, the presumed front-runner in the Democratic race, has called for higher standards of ethics in Washington but has not referred directly to the Renzi inquiry.
Dismissal of the investigation "doesn't affect our campaign," Simon spokesman David Flaks said. "He has been a rubber stamp for Bush, and he's out of step with voters of the district," Flaks said.
In dismissing the case, the commission left several minor transgressions to be worked out. The matters involve meeting requirements for a campaign to list the employer and occupation of donors.
From the beginning of his political career, Renzi's campaign-finance reports were riddled with computation errors and failure to report some donations on time.
The election commission said in the audit that his committee had cleared up most of those flaws.
When the same type of errors recurred, however, the commission fined his campaign fund $1,000 in 2005 and ordered that it appoint a compliance officer who would receive training from the agency.