Incoming Wisconsin lawmaker to clarify donations

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - The Federal Elections Commission has asked an incoming Wisconsin representative to clarify his post-election congressional campaign finance records.

The agency wants Glenn Grothman to explain four individual contributors and two committee contributions that appear to exceed legal limits. The Republican was elected to the 6th Congressional District in November and will take office next month. His campaign raised a total of $1.15 million.

At least two of those contributions appear to be due to redesignations for spouses, Sheboygan Press Media reported. Sargento CEO Lou Gentine contributed $5,200 and former U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde contributed $4,200. Both men say half of their respective contributions came from their spouses.

Individuals are limited to $2,600 in donations to each candidate per election.

Other individual contributions include $5,200 from J.J. Keller CEO James Keller and $3,100 from former U.S. Senate candidate Russ Darrow. Those donations may also be clarified by redesignating funds to spouses, according to Grothman Treasurer Kate Lind.

Donors are required to fill out paperwork to make the designation official, but sometimes the forms don't catch up with the filing deadline, she said.

Two Grothman campaign donations from another political campaign and a political action committee exceeded the $2,000 limit for candidate committees. U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy's campaign donated $2,500 and the Foxx PAC, a leadership political action committee associated with North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, donated $5,000.

Although leadership PACs are able to donate up to $5,000 to a candidate, the Foxx PAC is not considered a "multi-candidate" committee so it has a lower limit on campaign contributions.

The Grothman campaign will likely refund a portion of that PAC donation "just to keep it clean," Lind said, and the Duffy contribution should have been redesignated to handle primary debt instead.

These kinds of notices from the FEC are usually routine follow-ups to discrepancies in finance reports, sometimes resulting in amendments or refunds.

The Mark Harris campaign, Grothman's Democratic opponent, also received a follow-up from the FEC, as well as Duffy, Duffy's Democratic opponent Kelly Westlund and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville. But those clarifications were needed to due to miscalculations or other filing errors rather than excessive donations, according to the FEC.