Denham Avoids Campaign Finance Probe
Washington, DC — Congressman Jeff Denham will not face a federal investigation regarding advertisements that promoted a benefit concert.
The Federal Election Commission received a complaint from political activists Sean Fox, Tal Cloud and Mike Der Manouel Jr., regarding advertisements that ran on radio and TV during the last Republican Primary. Denham was facing former Congressman Richard Pombo and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson.
Denham had donated campaign funds to a military charity group known as “Remember the Brave.” The group later ran ads featuring Denham, an Air Force Veteran, when promoting their benefit concert at the Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino, located north of Fresno. FEC documents show that the plaintiffs argued that the Denham campaign and the non-profit group coordinated the advertisements, and did not report it to the FEC as campaign spending.
A total of eight complaints were made. The FEC ruled that five were unfounded, and were split 3-3 on whether to investigate the other complaints further. Since it was a tie, they will not seek further investigation, and the case is essentially closed. The Board is made up of three Republicans and three Democrats.
