The Democracy Campaign's Mike McCabe says he agrees with Senator John McCain.
The Arizona Republican, co-author with Wisconsin's Russ Feingold of the federal campaign finance reform which bears their names, has weighed in on Congressman Mark Green's transfer of money from his congressional campaign to his campaign for governor. McCain wrote that there was no intention to prohibit the sorts of transfers made by Green, as long as the money was raised legally. But McCabe says Wisconsin law limits such transfers to $43,128, while Green transferred nearly $1.3 million. “That's just not permissible, under state or federal law,” says McCabe.
The state's political parties issued press releases in the wake of McCain's statement: Democrats said he backed their assertions that the transfer was illegal, while Republicans said McCain clearly stated that the transfer was legal. McCabe's watchdog group has asked the Federal Elections Commission to rule that the nearly $1.3 million transfer was in fact illegal.
In a related development, the state Elections Board Wednesday dropped its effort to force Green to divest the remainder of the money in his congressional account. The Board had previously ordered Green to divest some $468,000 of that money, donated by out-of-state PACs. That's an order the state GOP is hoping the state Supreme Court will overturn.