Watchdog group files complaint against Hawley
UPDATE: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s campaign responded late Tuesday with a statement in response to the complaint.
“The entity filing this frivolous complaint is Giffords, a national gun control group that opposes the Second Amendment and opposed Justice Kavanaug,” Kelli Ford, a spokesperson for the Hawley campaign said. “Liberal Claire McCaskill’s vote against Justice Kavanaugh has become the most prominent issue in the Senate race this fall, so it’s no wonder this radical anti-gun group is helping McCaskill by filing desperate and frivolous complaints against conservative Josh Hawley and the NRA.”
ORIGINAL: A Washington, D.C., watchdog group has filed a complaint alleging Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s Senate campaign coordinated almost $1 million in spending.
The Campaign Legal Center in its complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission said in a news release that evidence indicates the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund used a shell corporation created by a Hawley campaign consultant to route the money in support of Hawley’s campaign.
“Groups like the NRA can only make unlimited expenditures if they are independent of the candidates they support, and it falls to the FEC to enforce the laws that preserve that independence and prevent corruption,” said Brendan Fischer, director, federal reform program at the Campaign Legal Center.
The organization said in its news release that a Politico Magazine investigation uncovered that leaders of the company OnMessage, which is led by Hawley campaign consultant Brad Todd, created a shell corporation called Starboard. The NRA contracted with Starboard on advertising to support OnMessage candidates, the Campaign Legal Center alleges. The organization says Hawley and the NRA also appear to be using the same vendors to place advertisements.
In its 123-page complaint, which includes exhibits, the organization says a vendor placed ads for the NRA and Hawley’s campaign on the same stations one the same day. OnMessage and Starboard share a mailing address, the complaint says.
The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a not-for-profit founded by shooting survivor and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, jointed the Campaign Legal Center in filing the complaint. The complaint asks the FEC to open an investigation and sanction the Hawley campaign.
Hawley, a Republican, is in a tight race against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.
ABC 17 News has tried to contact the Hawley campaign, but did not immediately get a response.
