Herb Rule Congressional Campaign Does Not File First Quarter Report

This week, the all-important first quarter FEC reports began rolling in for Congressional candidates in Arkansas.

These reports give many political observers a first look at a candidate’s fundraising ability and organization, particularly for candidates who jumped in shortly before filing. However, those hoping to get a look at Democratic Second Congressional Candidate Herb Rule are going to have to wait as he did not file one and, according to his campaign, they don’t plan to.

Reports were a bit conflicting on this.  On Tuesday, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette did an article rounding up the Congressional campaign filings and reported the following…

There was not a campaign finance report available on the commission’s website Monday for Herb Rule, a Democrat from Little Rock who is also running for the seat.

Rule, an attorney and former state representative, said the report had been mailed in and he did not know why it did not appear online.

But in a telephone interview on Wednesday evening (April 18), a spokesman for the campaign, Adam Fogleman, said he is unsure what report Rule was referring to as he does not know specifically what question was asked by the ADG reporter. But Fogleman says the Rule campaign has not and does not plan to file a report with the FEC for the first quarter as he does not believe they are required to.

The law requires campaigns to begin filing reports in the period in which they have contributions or expenditures over $5,000.  In response to the fact that an $8,000 filing fee had been paid on February 29, Fogleman pointed to a specific exception for “payments made for ballot access.”

So it looks like we will not get a look at Rule’s campaign report, but it does appear safe to say his campaign is off to a slow start having not yet raised even $5,000 in his campaign’s first month.