The Washington State Democratic Party has hit Republican Congressman Dave Reichert with a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission over Reichert’s Bellevue fundraiser with President Bush earlier this year:

The Washington State Democratic Party today filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission regarding serious violations of election law by Congressman Dave Reichert.

On August 27, 2007, President Bush held a $1,000 a head fundraiser in Bellevue on behalf of Congressman Reichert, the proceeds of which were supposed to be placed into a special joint account that would then be divided between the Reichert campaign and the Washington State Republican Party. Instead, much of the money appears to have been deposited directly in Congressman Reichert’s campaign account, a serious violation of FEC rules. The Reichert campaign has also failed to refund at least one contribution in excess of the $4,600 campaign contribution limit for individual donors.

“One of two things is going on here: either Dave Reichert and his campaign staff are incompetent or they initiated a deliberate effort to mislead the public about their disastrous fundraising in recent months,” Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz said.

Because of these gross campaign finance and reporting violations, the amount actually raised at the fundraiser continues to be mystery. The Reichert campaign initially told the press that more than $500,000 had been raised at the event. After filing their third quarter FEC fundraising report in October, a Reichert spokesman claimed the event has raised $230,000 for Congressman Reichert. After much speculation into the accuracy of these numbers, that figure was then claimed to be $185,000. None of those numbers, however, appear in the Reichert filing, which states that the joint fundraiser raised $135,000.

The Reichert campaign also misled the public by claiming to have raised more money in the third quarter than Democratic challenger Darcy Burner. Days later, as their FEC filing came under scrutiny, Reichert chief of staff Mike Shields admitted that the campaign had actually raised less in the third quarter than Burner, despite the benefit of a fundraising visit from the president […]