A high official at the FEC has pointed out to me that I mischaracterized the Fitzgerald request.  Here is what Unnamed Official said:

The Fitzgerald AO Request does not ask "whether the Senator may pay interest on bank loans made to his campaign committee from his personal funds or whether this constitutes an
"expenditure from personal funds" prohibited by the FEC regulations" (it clearly is not prohibited - as you know, an individual can spend unlimited amounts of his own funds on a senate race). Rather, he asks if doing so will trigger higher contribution limits for an opponent under the "Millionaire's Amendment" of McCain-Feingold, when the bank loans in question were for his 1998 campaign.

My apologies to all and thanks to Unnamed Official.  I should have double checked the citation in the Fitzgerald letter.


At 12:30 PM 4/1/2003 -0600, Ed Still wrote:

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) and Fitzgerald for Senate have requested an opinion on whether the Senator may pay interest on bank loans made to his campaign committee from his personal funds or whether this constitutes an "expenditure from personal funds" prohibited by the FEC regulations.

http://www.fec.gov/aos/aor2003-09req.pdf


Edward Still
attorney at law
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