Group Accuses Clinton, Dole Of Illegal Spending

A reform group accused the Clinton and Dole campaigns Wednesday of illegal spending and asked Attorney General Janet Reno to order an independent-counsel investigation.

Common Cause said Clinton and Dole are evading campaign spending limits by having the Democratic and Republican parties air television commercials that should by law be charged to the individual presidential candidates.

“Common Cause believes that the violations that occurred in the 1996 presidential elections are the most massive violations since the Watergate scandal,” organization president Ann McBride said.

A spokesman for Reno said she would not be able to comment until the formal request for an independent counsel had been reviewed.

Mary Mead Crawford, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, cited an advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission. It said parties can air spots featuring actual candidates as long as there is “no express advocacy of election or defeat” or an “electioneering message.”

“The RNC has the same rights as other organizations, including labor unions, to educate the American people on the issues,” Crawford said.

Joe Lockhart, a spokesman for the Clinton-Gore ‘96 campaign, said lawyers for the campaign and the Democratic National Committee “carefully examined and monitored” the ads to assure their legality.

The issue is also high on the agenda of Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot. Clay Mulford, the Perot campaign’s general counsel, applauded Common Cause’s action.

“It’s evidence of the general culture of noncompliance and law-breaking which is followed by both parties,” Mulford said.

Common Cause contends that the Clinton campaign has used at least $22 million in so-called “soft money,” contributions that are not supposed to directly aid candidates. The group said the Dole campaign has spent at least $9 million in soft money.

The complaint said that the RNC and DNC, as well as individual state party organizations, paid money to the same media consultants used by the candidates. Common Cause said the ads were run in “presidential battleground states,” and either referred specifically to Clinton and Dole or to their opponents.

The Clinton camp used DNC ads to bolster his re-election bid as far back as the summer of 1995, the complaint said. The Dole-RNC ads were designed to keep him in the public eye between April and August, as he used up his primary-elections spending limit.