FEC: Sarah Palin shopping spree legal

POLITICO - By KENNETH P. VOGEL 5/19/09

The Federal Election Commission has cleared the Republican National Committee’s purchase of $150,000 in clothes for Sarah Palin and her family. In a 5 – 0 vote taken late last month but made public Tuesday, the commission dismissed a complaint brought by the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleging that the RNC and Palin violated the ban on “personal use” of campaign cash by paying for a shopping spree for the Palin family at high-end stores including Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Victoria’s Secret. The expenditures, first revealed by POLITICO, caused major public relations headaches for Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor who cast herself as a modest-living everywoman. But the FEC ruled they did not constitute a prohibited personal use because that provision applies only to money raised by candidates, not by party committees. “Gov. Palin states that the RNC used its own funds to make the expenditures for the clothing and accessories, and not the funds in the campaign account of any candidate,” the FEC wrote in an explanation sent to CREW Tuesday. “We have no information to the contrary. As such, no candidate funds were converted to ‘personal use.’” (continues...)