Misuse of Funds Tied to Clinton, Dole Campaigns

WASHINGTON —  Finding that both the Clinton and Dole campaigns broke laws and misused federal funds during their 1996 bids for the presidency, Federal Election Commission staffers recommended Tuesday that the Clinton campaign repay $7 million and that the Bob Dole campaign repay $17.7 million to public coffers.

The announcement came as Congress sought to broaden its impeachment inquiry of the president to include allegations of campaign finance abuse and as Atty. Gen. Janet Reno contemplated whether to name an independent counsel to investigate possible fund-raising violations.

The findings concern so-called issue-advocacy advertisements, which the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee ran during the 1996 campaign. The FEC staff auditors charged that both campaigns illegally coordinated the supposedly independent ads and, in doing so, exceeded the spending limits the two candidates agreed to when they accepted taxpayer assistance for the election.

The report by the FEC staff will be considered by the six FEC commissioners Thursday.

Lawyers for both candidates argued against the recommendations, saying that political parties are free to pay for issue ads under current law and that such ads should not count as expenditures by a candidate’s campaign unless they explicitly urge a vote for that candidate.

An attorney for Dole, the Republican nominee in 1996, said the ads were an area of protected speech. “The only way to regulate the ads is if they have terms of advocacy such as ‘vote for,’ ” said Kenneth A. Gross.

It is common for the commission to reduce the financial penalties recommended by FEC staff in presidential audits, experts say. It is also common for presidential campaigns to be found to owe money to the Treasury as a result of these routine audits. Courts have repeatedly ruled against the FEC in its efforts to regulate issue-advocacy ads.

Staff writer Alan C. Miller contributed to this story.