Clean up on isle 3...

FEC reminds Rubio (again) to clean up his campaign finances

By Colby Itkowitz

Sen. Marco Rubio may want to clear the air with the Federal Election Commission before embarking on his next career endeavor.

Just because he’s running for president now (it’s nearly official!) the FEC isn’t going to let the Florida Republican off without him cleaning up his Senate campaign committee.

Rubio received a letter from the FEC Wednesday listing all the individual donors who exceeded the $2,600 legal contributions to his committee. There are 14 offenders who overpaid for his 2016 Senate re-election.

This should not come as a surprise to the Rubio folks. They received written warnings about these overgenerous donors after every quarterly campaign filing in 2014, but have just ignored them.

“We take compliance seriously and fully understand the limits,” said Alex Conant, Rubio spokesman. “We are aware of the request for additional information, are reviewing our filings and filing a response very shortly.”

Most aren’t terribly egregious; many donations are well under the limit but individuals give multiple times so it eventually adds up. Then there are people like Sandra Reus, the vice president of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors in Miami, who gave a lump sum of $9,600 in December 2014.

This isn’t the first time Rubio has mangled his campaign finance filings. In 2012, the FEC fined him $8,000 for accepting $210,000 in improper contributions during his first run for the Senate in 2010.

If Rubio’s people, who we’re sure are quite distracted of late, continue to ignore the FEC, they could get audited, or worse, referred to the FEC’s “enforcement division.” And seriously, who has time for that when you’re downing corndogs in Iowa and flipping pancakes in New Hampshire?