Subject: Dallas Morning News: Texas Democrats allege Cruz campaign violated federal election laws during Dallas fundraiser
From: "Garcia, Walter" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 11:39:45 -0700

Boom

Texas Democrats allege Cruz campaign violated federal election laws during Dallas fundraiser<http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/04/texas-democrats-allege-cruz-campaign-violated-federal-election-laws-during-dallas-fundraiser.html/>

Katie Leslie<http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/author/katieleslie/>

Texas Democrats have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz and his associates violated campaign finance laws.

The complaint, dated April 22, asserts that Cruz national co-chairman, J. Keet Lewis, broke election laws at an official campaign fundraiser in December by asking attendees to donate unlimited amounts, as well as to make corporate contributions to the pro-Cruz Stand for Truth PAC.

Cruz and his wife, Heidi, reportedly attended the Dec. 30 event in Dallas.

Federal law prohibits coordination between candidates and Super PACs. While a candidate or agent of a candidate can solicit donors to a PAC, it is illegal for them to solicit unlimited contributions or corporate contributions to a Super PAC. They can only solicit up to $5,000 from individuals.

The Texas Democrats say Lewis clearly violated those terms when he told donors "If you hit your max then we have a table for you that is the unlimited table. It can take corporate dollars, it can take partnership dollars, and that's the Super PAC, Stand for Truth..." according to the complaint.

Lewis also said "The method to our madness is this: You max out and then get engaged in the Super PAC," the filing states.

Lewis has denied wrongdoing and told Politico, which reported the potential violation earlier this month, that he is not an agent of the campaign under federal standards. Lewis was one of roughly 50 co-hosts. Texas Democrats argue that he is, <http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/ted-cruz-keet-lewis-super-pac-donations-221656> given his national co-chair role<https://www.tedcruz.org/news/small-business-supports-cruz-simple-flat-tax-plan/>.

Neither the Cruz campaign nor Lewis could be reached for immediate comment Monday.

The FEC had not received a copy of the complaint by Monday morning. In addition to Cruz and Lewis, the complaint lists Cruz for President treasurer Bradley Knippa and Stand for Truth Treasurer D. Eric Lycan as respondents.

It's the latest FEC complaint filed against Cruz's presidential campaign.

In January, the left-leaning group Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint alleging Cruz purposely hid more than $1 million<http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/01/fec-complaint-filed-against-ted-cruz-for-undisclosed-loans-in-2012-senate-campaign.html/> in loans from major banks during his 2012 Senate campaign.

In response, Cruz noted that he reported the loans on personal financial disclosure forms filed with the Senate and asked the FEC for guidance on how to amend the campaign reports in question.

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Walter Garcia
Democratic National Committee (DNC)
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
@WalterGarcia231<https://twitter.com/WalterGarcia231>
[SigDems]<http://www.democrats.org/>