The Louisiana Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission today, claiming Sen. David Vitter illegally accepted a $5,000 campaign contribution.
According to a Democratic Party press release, Republican Governors Association head Haley Barbour’s political action committee, Haley’s PAC, received a $5,000 contribution in August from former Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering just four days after making a contribution in the same amount to Vitter’s campaign.
La. democrats say there is strong evidence that David Vitter accepted a campaign contribution made in the name of another, the release stated.
The $5,000 transaction was the only activity reported by Haley’s PAC and the Commerce, Hope, Innovation and Progress (CHIP), Pickering’s committee, in August. CHIP PAC hasn’t reported any other transactions for 2009 and Haley’s PAC has made only one, according to the release.
“Pickering, like Vitter is a conservative Christian Republican accused of having an extramarital affair linked to the ‘C Street’ townhouse in Southeast Washington that is a the center of a spate of GOP sex scandals,” CQ Politics reported las month, according to the release.
Vitter and Pickering’s mutual scandals and association with the ‘C Street’ group may explain why they would want to hide the contribution, Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Chris Whittington said.
“Clearly, a direct and publicly disclosed contribution from Pickering to Vitter would bring unwanted attention to both scandal-plagued men and to the Republican Party as a whole,” Whittington said.
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