DES MOINES, Iowa — Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann made improper payments to an Iowa state senator who was the state chairman of her failed 2012 presidential campaign, a former campaign aide said in a complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.
In his letter to the FEC, Peter Waldron said Bachmann for President paid state Sen. Kent Sorenson $7,500 a month, including through a PAC associated with the congressman. Sorenson, a Republican from Milo, quit Bachmann’s campaign on the eve of the Jan. 3, 2012, Iowa caucuses and gave his support for the GOP presidential nomination to former Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
Waldron’s letter alleges the campaign also violated other FEC rules. The letter says MichelePAC paid C&M Strategies Inc. - a Coloradobased PAC accused of paying Sorenson - while it was operated by the same person who worked as the campaign’s national political director.
William McGinley, an attorney for Bachmann, said Waldron’s claims were untrue.
Sorenson, who previously has said he violated no state or federal campaign laws while serving as Bachmann’s chairman, said Friday that he stands“by everything I’ve said over the past year.”
Waldron was Bachmann’s national field coordinator from July 2011 to January 2012.
Bachmann won the Ames, Iowa, straw poll in August 2011. But the campaign struggled throughout the fall of 2011, and Bachmann quit the race after finishing a disappointing sixth place in the state’s 2012 caucuses.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/19/2013