Panel Clears Funds for Jackson

WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission on Tuesday declared Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson eligible to receive federal matching funds for his 1988 campaign.

In a unanimous vote, the commission certified Jackson to get his first allocation in the amount of $227,424, FEC spokesman Fred Eiland said.

Jackson is the last of the 13 major party candidates to become eligible for the matching funds. The others received their first checks from the U.S. Treasury on Monday.

In other action, the FEC told two firms that want to receive Gary Hart’s $100,000 in 1988 campaign matching funds to satisfy some 1984 debts that it has no power to send them the money.

In letters to lawyers representing the Xerox Corp. and Semper-Moser Associates, FEC General Counsel Lawrence Noble said the commission may only certify the disbursement of funds “to the individual candidate seeking presidential nomination,” not to others.

The two firms filed writs of attachment with the FEC in late December seeking some of the $100,000 in 1988 matching funds that Hart was found eligible to receive after he re-entered the 1988 race earlier that month.