WASHINGTON — Jim Walton, chairman of Arvest Bank in Bentonville and son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, said on Tuesday that he did not break campaignfinance laws, and called on a union-backed anti-Wal-Mart group to apologize for making the claim.

“Jim Walton is, and at all times was, in full compliance with all federal campaign contribution limits. The complaint misrepresents Mr. Walton’s contributions,” said a spokesman for Walton. “The complainant should immediately rescind its complaint, and issue an apology to both Mr. Walton and the Federal Election Commission for its filing of a baseless complaint that, with the application of even a small amount of research diligence, should have never been filed.”

On Friday, Making Change at Walmart, a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, submitted a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that Walton had broken campaign finance rules by contributing too much during the 2008 election cycle. The group claimed Walton’s contributions exceeded federal rules on total contributions to committees, candidates and on the amount individuals can contribute to compliance funds, which candidates use to pay for accounting, legal and ballot recount expenses.

On Friday Steven Lucas, a lawyer in San Rafael, Calif., who represents Walton, asked the FEC to dismiss the claim immediately. He said Making Change at Walmart double-counted contributions of $2,000 and $2,300. The result was a total of $4,300 in “phantom” donations that, when improperly counted, seemed to put Walton over federal contribution limits.

Lucas included a memorandum, dated Aug. 7, 2008, in which Walton gave instructions to McCain Victory 2008, a fundraising committee associated with Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, on how to allocate a $4,300 contribution.

In the memorandum, Walton directed the committee to send $2,300 to McCain’s general election fund and $2,000 to the Republican National Committee.

Instead, the McCain campaign allocated the $2,300 to McCain’s primary campaign fund and $2,000 to McCain’s compliance fund, Lucas told the FEC.

The error occurred because the McCain campaign — not Walton — doled out the money to the wrong organizations, he argued.

And when the error was discovered, the McCain campaign moved quickly to fix the problem and comply with federal law, he added. In subsequent filings, the McCain campaign noted that it intended to transfer the $4,300 according to Walton’s wishes.

As a result, the $4,300 donation was counted twice — first when it was erroneously given to the McCain primary fund and the McCain compliance fund; and again when that same money was transferred from the wrong accounts to the McCain general election fund and the Republican National Committee.

Those transfers, Lucas said, would have likely been bundled with other transfers made among McCain’s various committees. He said Making Change at Walmart wrongly characterized those intended transfers as additional contributions.

If that were the case, Walton would have contributed an aggregate total of $111,600 to candidates, parties and committees. The federal limit for such contributions in 2008 was $108,200. However, if Lucas’ math is right, Walton’s federal contributions in the 2008 cycle totaled $107,300.

Similarly, if a $2,000 transfer from the McCain compliance fund to the Republican National Committee were instead counted as an additional contribution to the compliance fund, as Making Change at Walmart claimed, the apparent total $4,300 contribution to the compliance fund would have been $2,000 over the limit.

Lisa Lisker, the treasurer of the McCain campaign in 2008, did not return calls Tuesday.

Making Change at Walmart stood by its claim on Tuesday.

“If Mr. Walton’s lawyers are correct about what actually occurred, then the error lies with both the various McCain committees and Mr. Walton for failing to ensure the accuracy of the public records about his contributions,” the groups said. “We should allow the FEC to review the facts.”

A spokesman for the FEC said the agency had not received the complaint or Walton’s response.

“It’s possible that it is still in the mail or that we just haven’t processed it yet,” the spokesman said.

Business, Pages 33 on 11/07/2012