FEC questions McCain campaign fundraising

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. elections officials are looking into possible fundraising violations by the campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, records indicate.

On the same day that the Republican National Committee asked the Federal Election Committee to look into fundraising by the campaign of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, The Washington Post reported Monday that the FEC sent a letter to the McCain campaign last week demanding more information about "contributions that appear to exceed limits."

The letter was accompanied by nine pages of information on campaign donations listed in the campaign's August finance report suggesting donors exceeded the legal limit for contributions, the newspaper said.

"Please inform the commission of your corrective action immediately in writing and provide photocopies of any refund checks and/or letters re-attributing or redesignating the contributions in question," the letter said. "The acceptance of excessive contributions is a serious problem."

The RNC complaint filed Monday alleged the Obama campaign has accepted excessive contributions and donations from foreign nationals, and has "failed to take the necessary remedial action required by law."

RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross said in a statement, "We see this as a wide-scale problem and it appears the Obama campaign may be in substantial non-compliance with federal campaign finance laws."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton told The Hill the Democrat's campaign exceeded transparency requirements by disclosing its bundlers -- supporters who collected donations from other individuals -- and by disclosing how much each bundler has raised.