Timmy! Spending Money Promoting Self For VP?

Seems that Gov. Timmy!’s PAC, Moving Virginia Forward (he serves as its chairman), has bought ads via ”Ads by Goooooogle” that link to a video that is almost total self-promotion.  I saw the following ad pop up on Bearing Drift this morning.  (Note, when you use the Google ad service, you don’t get to pick what might appear, so this is of no fault of BD.)

A few things about this ad and the video that it links to.

First, I believe this may very well be the first time that someone has used money to blatantly promote themselves for VP.  (Note the title, “Fired Up For CHANGE” — Obama’s signature campaign tag line.)

Second, while 75 percent of this video is promoting Timmy!, the final 25 percent shows images of Timmy! and Barry Obama and has several elected Dems stating that Barry will win Virginia this year — as in they are explicity advocating the election of a federal candidate.  (Check out the segment beginning at the 3 min. 35 sec. mark.)

One problem, Moving Virginia Forward is only a state-registered PAC, NOT a federal PAC. If you are going to promote the election of a federal candidate, you cannot use soft money, which is what Moving Virginia Forward is comprised of.  With a federal PAC, the contribution limit is $5,000 per individual per year.  Let’s look at who Moving Virginia Forward has received money from so far this year:

Amount	Name	Location
$100,000	Randal J Kirk	Radford
$50,000	John O Wynne	Virginia Beach
$46,522	Democratic Governors’ Assn	Washington, DC
$35,000	Sheila C Johnson	The Plains
$35,000	Suzann W Matthews	McLean
$25,000	Frank Batten, Jr	Norfolk
$25,000	W Austin Ligon	Manakin Sabot
$25,000	George W Logan	Earlysville
$25,000	G Gilmer Minor, III	Richmond
$25,000	Boyd C Tinsley	North Garden
$10,000	Ben Barnes	Austin, TX
$10,000	Morton Funger	McLean
$10,000	Hunton & Williams	Richmond
$10,000	Theodore J Leonsis	Vero Beach, FL
$10,000	Medical Facilities of America	Roanoke
$10,000	Diane M Smith	Arlington
$10,000	John M Toups	McLean
$10,000	Troutman Sanders	Richmond
$10,000	Allison P Weinstein	Richmond
$7,500	Alpha Natural Resources	Abingdon
$7,500	Frank M Conner, III	Alexandria
$7,000	William G “Billy” Jefferson, Jr	Richmond
$7,000	River City Real Estate	Richmond
$6,526	Cobb Office Products	Richmond
$6,000	Barr Laboratories Inc	Pomona, NY

Oh, my.  All in excess of $5,000.  And what is this?  At least one corporation?  While legal under Virginia law, such money cannot be used to promote a federal candidate.  That’s a gigantic no-no.

Yes, Timmy!  Your PAC just violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by explicity advocating the election of Barry Obama as president.  Nice going there!  Expect to be hearing from the FEC soon.