
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995                   TAG: 9507130071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

JACKSON CAMPAIGN, OTHERS FINED

Finishing its audits from the 1988 presidential contest, the Federal Election Commission has levied a record $150,000 civil fine against the campaign of Jesse Jackson, who is mulling a possible challenge to President Clinton next year.

The FEC also fined Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt's 1988 campaign $80,000 and Republican Alexander Haig's $60,000.

The FEC found Jackson's campaign accepted excessive contributions totaling more than $192,000, failed to document two bank loans properly and filed incomplete or inaccurate disclosure forms involving more than $11 million.

``We probably had the least-experienced people running the campaign, and our campaign had the greatest grassroots component, and we were running the fastest,'' said Frank Watkins, the political director at Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. ``Those combined factors led to some mistakes.''

House Minority Leader Gephardt's presidential and congressional campaigns were fined $80,000 and ordered to refund $70,000 in excessive and prohibited contributions.

Haig's campaign was hit for receiving improper contributions and services from Committee For America, a political action committee, totaling $589,722. Haig, a retired Army general, was secretary of state under President Reagan.

- Associated Press

by CNB