FEC asks Budd, Beasley to explain and return more than $71K in questionable donations

The Budd campaign says the more than $33,000 in potential overages have largely already been refunded. Beasley’s campaign said it is in the process of returning contributions.

"Like in every campaign, the FEC offers a 60-day window to return contributions that exceed the contribution limit, which is of course being done in this case," said Dory MacMillan, a spokeswoman for Beasley.

Beasley, a Democrat and former chief justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, was asked to account for nearly $38,000 in donations.

Under federal law, congressional candidates can receive up to $2,900 from an individual per election and up to $2,000 from authorized committees. When donors surpass those limits, campaigns must provide a refund to donors for the excessive amount.

The agency said both letters were part of preliminary reviews.

Jonathan Felts, a senior campaign adviser who is now leading Budd’s transition team, said the campaign typically returns money to unregistered groups that exceed a $1,000 limit that would trigger the groups to register with the FEC. Felts added that most every excessive contribution from individuals is refunded within 10 days. He acknowledged some repayments fall through the cracks ahead of reporting deadlines but said the nearly $24,000 excess from 20 individual donors has already been resolved.

“It’s all been refunded,” Felts said in a text message.

The roughly $33,000 in question is a mere fraction of the $1 million in contributions Budd took in from Oct. 1 through Oct. 19. The nearly $38,000 the FEC asked Beasley’s campaign about is far less than the $4.7 million total contributions the Democrat took in over the same period.

While the amounts are small, a few apparent errors from donors did appear in the report Budd’s campaign filed to the FEC on Oct. 27. One donor contributed $7,100 in a single transaction, a figure that far exceeds the $2,900 limit for the entire election. Over the course of a week in October, Douglas Lathrem gave Budd $12,000 — a $9,100 exceedance.

Felts said the $9,100 overpayment from Lathrem “was an example of the process playing out as the report was filed.”

Other donors caught the attention of the FEC, particularly with one supporter, Jolene Kuo, making 181 contributions to Budd over the course of 77 days. The individual donations ranging from $0.50 to $95. While she was refunded $122.35, she was still owed $26.71. Eight of the 20 donors who hadn’t been fully refunded in the report were owed $100 or less. Two donors were owed $1.67 each.

“All of those are folks who get online and donate, we have no control of how much they give,” Felts said. “And once they click the mouse, it’s then got to be reported and then refunded and then reported again.”