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LA Dems File Complaint Over Vitter’s 'C Street Relay'

Today, the Louisiana Democratic Party announced it will file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging that Senator David Vitter, former Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering and Republican Governors Association head Haley Barbour engaged in an illegal conduit scheme to hide a contribution from Pickering to Vitter's campaign.
 
In August, Barbour's political action committee, Haley's PAC, received a $5,000 contribution from Pickering four days after making a contribution in the same amount to David Vitter's campaign. Louisiana Democrats say there is strong evidence that David Vitter accepted a campaign contribution made in the name of another, a violation of federal law.
 
The $5,000 transaction was the only activity reported by Haley's PAC and the Commerce, Hope, Innovation and Progress (CHIP), Pickering's committee, in August. CHIP PAC has not reported any other transactions for 2009 and Haley's PAC has made only one.
 
"When you lay out the facts, it's clear that it is not simply a coincidence that in a four day period these two dormant PACs suddenly passed around an identical amount of money that ultimately ends up in David Vitter's hands," said Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Chris Whittington. "Most people who break the law manage to cover their tracks a little better than Vitter, Pickering and Barbour seem to have."
 
CQ Politics reported this suspicious serious of transactions between Vitter, Barbour and Pickering last month, noting that "Pickering, like Vitter is a conservative Christian Republican accused of having an extramarital affair linked to the 'C Street' townhouse in Southeast Washington that is at the center of a spate of GOP sex scandals." CQ Politics labeled the suspicious transactions a "$5K C Street Relay." 
 
Their mutual scandals and their association with the 'C Street' group may explain why Vitter and Pickering would want to hide the contribution, Whittington says.
 
"Clearly, a direct and publicly disclosed contribution from Pickering to Vitter would bring unwanted attention to both scandal-plagued men and to the Republican Party as a whole," Whittington said.