Federal Election Commission

The Federal Election Commission said Thursday that presidential candidates may accept private contributions for potential general election campaigns and still remain eligible for public financing if they ultimately win their party's nomination. The ruling came after a request for clarification from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s political action committee agreed to pay a $27,000 penalty because its former assistant treasurer filed false reports to cover up his embezzlement, the Federal Election Commission said. The Lockheed Martin Employees' Political Action Committee filed false reports detailing its contributions and expenditures based on information submitted by the committee's assistant treasurer at the time, Kenneth Phelps, according to the agreement. He was fired in 2004, Lockheed said.

During the presidential frenzy that descends upon this farmland state every four years, Mary Ann Corrigan has met Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan -- and way too many also-rans to name. Now, blissfully minding her own business at the Machine Shed restaurant, the 72-year-old retired farmer is about to meet John H. Cox.

A veteran political fundraiser has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of lying about the amount collected and spent during a Hollywood gala that raised more than $1 million for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign, authorities announced Friday. The four-count indictment charges David Rosen, 40, of Chicago with repeatedly misleading the Federal Election Commission about the contributions received to stage the Aug.

California's political watchdog agency, crippled by having only three investigators, is wading through a backlog of 737 cases of alleged campaign misdeeds while wrestling to craft a new generation of voter-authorized campaign reforms. Some critics say the Fair Political Practices Commission has become the place where complaints go to die.

A former top aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton was acquitted Friday of charges that he deliberately concealed more than $700,000 in contributions to finance a fundraising gala for her 2000 Senate campaign. David Rosen, who served as Clinton's national finance director, embraced his lawyer and smiled broadly as U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz announced the jury's verdict after a three-week trial. "I'm relieved this ordeal is over," Rosen said afterward. "This has been going on for five years.

BRUCE MCPHERSON, California's secretary of state, has just performed an invaluable service for the voters. Only a few months into the job, he had been under intense pressure to certify the latest electronic touch-screen voting machine manufactured by Diebold Election Systems, which is supposed to help California counties meet a federally mandated January deadline for the overhaul of their election equipment.

Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" lived on at the Federal Election Commission after it left theaters. The agency said Tuesday it has dismissed two complaints that accused Moore and others involved in the 2004 film of violating a ban on the use of corporate money for election-time presidential ads.

The Federal Election Commission ruled Thursday that members of Congress are free to raise unlimited sums to support or oppose California ballot measures -- a potentially serious blow to one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's key initiatives. The ruling is likely to intensify the expected flood of campaign advertising aimed at California voters this fall.