Gingrich Group Asks Dismissal of Election Panel Suit
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WASHINGTON — A political committee headed by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), the next House Speaker, asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss an attempt by regulators to have the group declared in violation of election law.
The committee, GOPAC, denied that it tried to solicit money for federal candidates in 1989, an action that could have forced it to publicly disclose contributors.
U.S. District Judge Louis Oberdorfer took the motion to dismiss under advisement.
The Federal Election Commission filed suit to force GOPAC to pay a fine and be declared in violation for not registering as a political action committee. GOPAC, in earlier negotiations, had refused to admit a violation and to pay a $150,000 fine--a figure that could be several times larger if the FEC wins the court case.
The court arguments focused on a 1989 GOPAC letter from Gingrich, then as now the House Republican whip and general chairman of GOPAC.
The 1989 letter asked potential donors for money to protest congressional mail costs in a Democratic-run Congress and gerrymandering of House districts by state legislatures.
But the letter also expressed the goal of building a House GOP majority in 1992, an objective reached in November’s elections.
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