02 September, 2017
The complaint argues that despite the musician's statements to the contrary, Ritchie should be considered a candidate based on the merchandise sold and the continued existence of the Kid Rock for Senate website, and has violated the law by not disclosing campaign contributions. But apparently, the rockstar, aka Robert Ritchie, hasn't registered himself officially as a candidate, which a non-partisan watchdog group, Common Cause, says is a violation of federal law.
The road ahead for Kid Rock's Senate campaign may be starting to look less bright.
Common Cause asks the FEC and Justice Department to investigate the unofficial campaign and "impose appropriate sanctions for any and all violations", along with "additional remedies as are necessary and appropriate to ensure compliance" with the Federal Election Campaign Act. "This is campaign finance law 101", said Paul S. Ryan, the organization's vice president for policy and litigation, in a statement published to the organization's Web site. No. 2: "See No. 1 and go f- yourselves".
In a complaint filed by Common Cause, Rock is said to have "violated the candidate registration and reporting requirements" by selling campaign merchandise without registering as a candidate.
The fact that he hasn't formally announced, nor filed paperwork with the F.E.C., seems to be the issue at hand, however.
Kid Rock was an early Trump supporter, and attended a White House dinner along with Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, and other redneck millionaires in April.
While a potential candidate is allowed to explore the possibility of running for office, election-campaign-finance lawyer Jerry H. Goldfeder told Vulture that Kid Rock might run into trouble if he does anything that qualifies as real campaigning, such as asking people to vote for him, conducting polls, or yes, creating a website that appears to endorse his 2018 Senate run. He's promoting his non-candidacy on Twitter, and linking to articles featuring favorable polls in a hypothetical Senate race matchup with MI incumbent Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat.
Read Common Cause's complaint in full here.
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