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Sigmon files FEC complaint: McHenry accepted illegal campaign contribution

NEWTON- Republican congressional candidate Lance Sigmon of Newton filed an official complaint yesterday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), charging that incumbent 10th District Rep. Patrick McHenry may have accepted an illegal corporate contribution on April 4.

Sigmon, who faces McHenry in the May 6 Republican primary for Congress, said a radio host promised to package and distribute his interview with McHenry to "any other website that is trying to smear your good name." "I believe that promise amounted to an in-kind corporate contribution to McHenry's campaign," said Sigmon.

"Under the federal campaign finance laws {2 U.S. Code 431(8) and 2 U.S. Code 441b(a)}," added the Newton lawyer, "corporate contributions to political campaigns are illegal."

McHenry had tried to lessen the negative public impact of a remark he made in a March 29 speech in Lincolnton about a sentry in Iraq whom he called a "two-bit security guard" by calling into a conservative talk radio show on Sirius satellite radio.

In the April 4 interview with Andrew Wilkow of the Wilkow Majority Program on Sirius, McHenry discussed the "two-bit security guard" controversy at length, saying that the remarks found offensive by military and veterans' groups were a "poor choice of words."

At the end of the interview, Wilkow promised McHenry: "We are going to go package up this interview, and we're going to send it to any other website, liberal or conservative, that is trying to smear your good name, sir. Thanks for coming on and putting out that fire." McHenry's response: "Thanks Andrew..."

Sigmon noted that "he was aware of at least one website that posted the entire interview which lasted over eight minutes."

"Sirius Satellite Radio and the Wilkow Majority Program are both corporate entities," Sigmon concluded. "We believe that any action on the part of either to distribute campaign materials beneficial to Rep. McHenry would be considered a violation of the federal ban on corporate contributions."