A radio host’s recently launched campaign to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has violated campaign finance laws, according to a complaint filed by the Kentucky Republican Party.
Kentucky Democrat and sports radio host Matt Jones, who launched his bid to unseat Kentucky’s senior senator in September, is accused of violating Federal Election Commission regulations prohibiting campaigns from taking corporate donations. The party’s complaint argues that Jones is accepting corporate contributions from iHeartMedia, which syndicates his radio show, and Simon & Schuster, publisher of his upcoming book Mitch, Please!
State GOP chairman J. McCauley Brown accused Jones of ignoring campaign finance laws and attempting to “conceal these violations from both the FEC and the public.”
“Matt Jones must be held accountable immediately for misusing multiple platforms paid for by his corporate sponsors to unlawfully promote his U.S. Senate candidacy,” Brown said in a statement. “RPK’s complaint is an important first step in stopping Jones’s flagrant failure to comply with federal regulations and we urge the FEC to deliver a swift and strong penalty.”
iHeartMedia pulled Jones from his show “for the time being” shortly after the complaint was filed. Neither Jones nor iHeartMedia responded to requests for comment. – READ MORE