Recent Giving To Fenty At Issue

The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance said yesterday that it will review post-election contributions to Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty to determine whether nearly $45,000 donated after the Nov. 7 vote violated city regulations.

Campaign regulations prohibit contributions being "received or accepted after the election" except to retire debt, and Fenty's latest campaign report lists no outstanding bills or loans.

"We have received Mr. Fenty's report and have seen the contributions," said Cecily E. Collier-Montgomery, director of the campaign finance office. "We will make an inquiry into the contributions that came in after the election."

On Monday, Fenty (D) submitted a report that lists contributions and expenses from Oct. 11 to Dec. 10. Records show that Fenty's mayoral campaign raised an unprecedented total of $3.8 million, about 40 percent more than the $2.7 million raised by his closest opponent, D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D).

The report shows Fenty with $725,388 cash on hand and no debt. Cropp received $4,000 in the same period, but she had debt totaling $24,520.

City officials said Fenty will be asked to explain why he has not stopped collecting money.

Fenty's attorney, Peter Nickles, said Fenty is doing nothing inappropriate. Nickles said that more bills might come in and that the regulations give the campaign half a year to settle accounts.

"There are specific D.C. regulations that a campaign may continue to raise funds after an election for six months," he said. "The regulations anticipate that an individual may end up with more funds than debts."

Collier-Montgomery said checks written after the election should carry an annotation that the money is "to retire debts."

John Falcicchio, Fenty's campaign finance director, said that Fenty did not have anyone raising money after the general election but that donations continued to arrive at the campaign's post office box. Asked about outstanding debts, Falcicchio said that he did not know whether the campaign had invoices that have not been delivered.

William O. Sanford, an attorney for the Campaign Finance Office, said District law clearly states that after an election, candidates are allowed to accept money only to pay debts.

"If candidates accept contributions they're not legally allowed to accept, the only alternative is to return the contributions," he said. "It's true across the board."