Bush 2000 Campaign Will Pay $90,000 Fine

Democrats have scored one small, belated victory in the 2000 presidential recount.

President Bush’s 2000 campaign has agreed to pay a $90,000 civil fine for failing to disclose fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission for its effort to win the Florida recount, the FEC said Tuesday.

The campaign paid the fine to settle the case, which resulted from a complaint by Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Bush raised nearly $14 million for his effort to win the Florida ballot dispute, compared with about $3.2 million spent by Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore.

The Bush campaign disclosed details of its recount spending in a report to the Internal Revenue Service in July 2002. The FEC said the campaign should have reported the fundraising to the commission.

McAuliffe filed his complaint in 2001.

“There is simply no law that allows Bush-Cheney to establish a secret slush fund to hide the sources and uses of millions of dollars collected for the express purpose of winning the offices of president and vice president of the United States,” McAuliffe wrote to the FEC.

FEC Chairman Bradley Smith, a Republican, defended the timing of the fine.

Although the Bush-Cheney campaign alleged that the resolution of the case had been “manipulated to come ‘back to life’ at the start of the 2004 presidential campaign,” the real reason it took so long was because of delays the campaign requested, Smith said.

Times staff writer Lisa Getter contributed to this report.