THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410050505
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder, whose use of a state plane for personal travel stirred controversy while he was in office, has flown into trouble again - this time for his use of the aircraft when he ran for president.
The Federal Election Commission has ordered Wilder to reimburse Virginia more than $28,000 for flights he took during the second half of 1991, saying he understated the amount of money he should have paid for campaign travel in the state plane.
Auditors also alleged - and a lawyer for Wilder admitted Monday - that the presidential campaign used about $2,800 of its money to pay for two flights that were part of Wilder's 1991 vacation.
The vacation flights first made headlines when it was revealed that the governor and a social companion had taken the state airplane to New York's Kennedy Airport to catch a connecting flight for Switzerland and for the return leg from New York to Richmond. Wilder initially charged the state flights to taxpayers, but after they were publicized, he agreed to cover them himself.
Instead, the FEC now says, Wilder reimbursed the state with campaign funds, in violation of federal election law.
Wilder could not be reached for comment, but Leslie J. Kerman, a lawyer for that campaign, said he does not dispute the allegation and intends to repay the FEC $2,785 for the vacation flights.
But Kerman said the campaign will contest other allegations regarding air travel and related expenses, saying the FEC's figures overstate how much Wilder should have paid. The FEC ``wants to take the most expensive calculation'' of how much air travel should cost, Kerman said.
The allegations are part of a formal review of Wilder's 1992 presidential campaign that will be the subject of a hearing by the FEC tomorrow.
In FEC documents, auditors also allege that Wilder's campaign overestimated how much it should have gotten from the federal government in public matching funds.
The commission has ordered Wilder's campaign to pay about $72,000 to the state and federal governments.
Of that, FEC officials say, about $40,000 is due the federal government for public matching funds that Wilder's campaign spent on items that are not allowed by federal law, including staff salaries after he had withdrawn from the race. But the disagreement over Wilder's use of the state airplane and also of state telephones is unusual.
Wilder's campaign paid the state $625 an hour for use of the plane, an amount that Kerman said is specified in state law. But federal law requires candidates to pay a higher rate for the use of any private aircraft, and FEC auditors say the Wilder campaign disregarded that law.
``We consistently paid what the state required,'' reimbursing more than $70,000 for use of aircraft, telephones and other equipment, Kerman said.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA CANDIDATES CAMPAIGN
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