Did you all see this? Dems, Union Sue to Block Release of Records From Fund-Raising Probe
Jul 13, 2001
By Sharon Theimer
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic National Committee and the AFL-CIO filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to block the release of records from a federal inquiry into their campaign activities.
The DNC and union asked a federal court in Washington to bar the Federal Election Commission from opening thousands of pages of documents to public inspection Tuesday.
The lawsuit contends that many of the records contain confidential information, such as employee names and campaign plans.
"The documents of greatest concern to us are all of the coordinated campaign plans and all of the documents reflecting the most sensitive proprietary internal decisions regarding strategy - our techniques and methods for how we go about our political activity," DNC general counsel Joseph Sandler said.
FEC spokesman Ian Stirton declined to comment.
The commission began an inquiry into the DNC's and AFL-CIO's coordinated campaign activities after Republicans complained that the union spent up to $35 million to help Democrats in the 1996 elections.
Republicans argued the spending, much of it on ads, was illegal because the union and party officials had worked too closely together on the campaign activities it financed.
The FEC decided last fall that their ties, while close, were legal under a federal court ruling that set a stricter standard for determining illegal coordination.
In all, the commission planned to release about 36,000 pages from the case.
The FEC decided this week to reopen for public viewing Tuesday about 6,000 pages that were briefly released but pulled back in spring after the Democrats and AFL-CIO objected.
The commission, agreeing with staff attorneys' recommendation, ruled that much of the information was already in the public domain and that the public's interest in disclosure overrode privacy concerns.
The DNC and the AFL-CIO contend only documents from commission lawyers setting forth the reasons the FEC decided against further pursuit of the GOP complaint should be released.
AP-ES-07-13-01 1737EDT
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