Bush Campaign Is Fined, Will Repay $134,000
The 1988 Bush-Quayle campaign has agreed to pay a $10,000 civil fine and return almost $134,000 in travel-related overcharges to media organizations, the Federal Elections Commission said Monday.
The fine came after the FEC conducted an audit into the Bush-Quayle campaign’s billings of those who journeyed around the country with the two candidates in 1988, the FEC said.
The overcharges came because the Bush-Quayle campaign failed to count Secret Service agents and others among travelers on press charter aircraft, thereby driving up the amount that media organizations covering the campaign were charged.
Typically, the audit found, at least two members of the presidential protective detail and a minimum of four campaign staff members were on each flight.
The FEC calculated that the actual overcharges came to $133,816.63.
The Bush-Quayle campaign, which did not challenge the audit’s findings, has already paid the fine.
FEC officials had no word on when the media organizations would be reimbursed, or which newspapers, wire services or electronic media outlets would be getting cash back.
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