Campaign Committee Called Illegal

by Joseph R. Daughen, Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: October 29, 1992

In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, Democrat Lynn Yeakel has accused a so-called "independent" campaign committee of being an illegal fund-raising front for Sen. Arlen Specter.

The filing, prepared by attorney Gregory M. Harvey, charges that the committee was created "solely for the purpose of evading the legal limits" on individual contributions to Specter.

The Independent Senatorial Committee, according to the complaint, is not independent but is an arm of Citizens for Arlen Specter designed to get around the maximum $1,000 limit on any individual's contribution to a single candidate.

As evidence of this, Harvey attached to the complaint copies of full-page newspaper advertisements supporting Specter that the committee ran in the Jewish Exponent and the Jewish Times and that was signed by 91 persons.

Of those 91, the complaint said, 20 already had made the maximum $1,000 donation to Specter and 16 others had made donations in varying amounts.

The normal total cost of the ads is $3,667.65, the complaint said.

Federal election law permits the raising of "soft" campaign money by committees not directly tied to a specific candidate. In general, these committees are not bound by the $1,000 limit as long as the funds they expend are used for broad purposes, such as voter registration, get-out-the-vote drives and other efforts that support a party rather than an individual.

Edward H. Rosen, listed as treasurer of ISC, said Yeakel's allegation was ''totally untrue." The committee, he said, was formed by him and his wife and another couple "without any contact at all with the Specter campaign."

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