Group Claims McSally Fundraising for Two Campaigns

A campaign finance watchdog group claims Republican congresswoman Martha McSally is breaking the law by collecting donations for two campaigns simultaneously.

The group End Citizens United filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission, claiming McSally is collecting donations for her House campaign even though she is actively running for the U.S. Senate.

The Federal Election Commission website shows McSally's House campaign was still recording donations at the end of March, six weeks after she announced her campaign for the Senate.

Campaign spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair says the House campaign account can't be closed until the FEC finishes investigating previous issues. Sinclair issued a written statement that said "This is a liberal political organization who has endorsed our democrat [sic] opponent, of course they filed a frivolous complaint. We will close the campaign committee when the FEC allows us to close the campaign committee. Ironically, now this complaint will also need to be dismissed before we can close the committee."

End Citizens United spokesman Adam Bozzi rejects McSally's explanation that the old House campaign account is still open because it's being audited.

"If it was because of the audit, that still means they shouldn't be fundraising in the two accounts at the same time. They certainly have the opportunity to declare that they weren't using the House account, that it wasn't active, and that she was running for Senate," Bozzi said.

End Citizens United has endorsed Democratic congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema in the race for Senate. McSally's campaign says that's the real reason for the complaint. But the campaign did not explain why two separate campaign committees, McSally for Congress and McSally for Senate, are both accepting donations at the same time.