By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A campaign finance watchdog is raising alarms over what it says were a series of misleading campaign donation websites run by the Republican Party.

On Wednesday, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), for authorizing the websites.

The websites in question appear to be standard fundraising appeals for Democratic congressional candidates, who are prominently pictured. But the true destination of the contributions and the sponsor of the website is hidden in the fine print — the NRCC.

 “Rep. Walden and the NRCC have become online scam artists, tricking people out of their campaign donations,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said.

Among the Democrats targeted: Georgia Rep. John Lewis, New Hampshire Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Sean Eldridge, a New York Democratic congressional candidate.

GOP officials wrote off the ethics complaint as a liberal ploy after the Democrats’ painful loss in Tuesday’s special House election in Florida, in which Republican David Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink. 
“This is nothing more than a publicity stunt by an extreme liberal front group for Democrats to bolster their deflated supporters after their defeat in yesterday’s special election,” said Andrea Bozek, a spokeswoman for NRCC.  

 

• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.

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