NV Dems File FEC Complaint as Sue Lowden Breaks the Law Yet Again

Lowden Admits Illegal Use of $18,000 in Campaign Funds

The Nevada State Democratic Party today filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission over GOP Senate candidate Sue Lowden’s illegal use of general election funds for her primary bid – a violation that Lowden's campaign literally admitted to in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Pressed by the R-J on how the campaign's cash-on-hand equaled less than the amount of general election contributions it had taken in – contributions that cannot be touched in the primary without serious legal consequences – the Lowden campaign said last week that it spent nearly $18,000 in general election funds before the primary. “We're spending money as it comes in,” campaign manager Robert Uithoven admitted to the Review-Journal. Click here to view the complaint.

And while Lowden's campaign manager tried to dismiss their most recent illegal activity as an "accounting error," he also appeared to acknowledge with his "spending money as it comes in" remark that they are doing absolutely nothing to comply with the strict and unambiguous laws governing the segregation of primary and general election donations.

This latest violation of the law comes as a tanking Sue Lowden is poised to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars of her own money in a final desperate attempt to save her fading shot at winning the GOP primary. (As of Friday, Lowden made a $200,000 plus television ad buy through the primary, but the campaign does not have the primary cash-on-hand to cover that buy.)

Sadly, this is not the first time Sue Lowden has flagrantly broken the law in this campaign. In fact, this is the second time that admissions of illegal activity by the Lowden campaign have been the very basis for an FEC complaint. During an interview with KOLO-TV in Reno, Lowden bragged that her 40-foot, $100,000 plus luxury campaign bus had been “donated” to her – a serious FEC violation punishable with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

“Sue Lowden clearly has no respect for the law," said Phoebe Sweet, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party. “Once again her campaign has admitted to illegal activity in violation of federal election laws -- laws that exist to maintain transparency and protect the integrity of the system. But once again Sue Lowden has thumbed her nose at the law and thumbed her nose at Nevada voters. They deserve better.”