Will Breazeale says he paid his campaign back for clothes.

The former Congressional candidate, who was criticized last week by a campaign finance group for using $1,000 of campaign money to buy clothing, said that he reimbursed the campaign after his treasurer told him the expense did not meet Federal Election Commission guidelines.

"I wrote a personal check to refund my campaign for $1,000 and instructed my treasurer to self-disclose our action to the FEC," he wrote the Fayetteville Observer in an e-mail.

He added that he was confident the FEC would dismiss the complaint, which came from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 

The group had complained about spending by several other Congressional candidates as well as Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. 

Breazeale lost to longtime Democratic Congressman Mike McIntyre in November. 

Even more out-of-state money is headed here.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to spend $1.6 million to attack U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, according to the liberal blog Talking Points Memo.

The ads would be designed to boost schoolteacher Larry Kissell's chances in a rematch.

The Cook Political Report ranks the race as a "Toss Up" and Hayes took the unusual step of attacking Kissell in a TV ad in mid-June.

The outside money could even the money playing field. According to the Federal Election Commission, Kissell had $231,583 in cash on hand at the end of June, while Hayes had $1.2 million.

But the real winners may be North Carolina TV stations.

Already, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is committing $6 million, the Democratic National Committee is raising money for the N.C. Democratic Party to use, and the Republican Governors Association is talking about spending here.

It seems Pat McCrory is not the only politician handing out demotions.

As we noted yesterday, the Republican gubernatorial candidate demoted former U.S. Sen. Jim Broyhill to a state legislator on his campaign finance report.

Now Washington-based newspaper Roll Call reports that U.S. Rep. Mel Watt had a little trouble with two donors on his report: Fellow Congressmen Charlie Rangel and Jim Clyburn.

For employers, he listed: "Information requested."

Watt told Roll Call he was following Federal Election Commission protocol and requesting the information from the contributors.

"It does seem very funny, but we're just following protocol," he said. 

Apparently the FEC won't accept information readily available on Wikipedia. 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole hasn't yet released her campaign fund-raising figures for the second quarter, but she said in an interview today she feels good about them.

"I think it's going well," she said. "Obviously it's a tough cycle, but I've been having fund-raisers all over the state. People have been wonderful about helping out."

Dole, a Salisbury Republican, is seeking re-election for a second term, Barb Barrett reports.

Her opponent, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro, said earlier this week she had raised $1.6 million in the quarter that ended June 30.

Figures aren't due to the Federal Election Commission until Tuesday. Dole wouldn't say today how much she's raised or whether it’s more than Hagan.

"Oh," she said pleasantly, "wait for our announcement."

Mark Binker checked the N.C. Republican Party's complaint against Kay Hagan.

In the Inside Scoop column, the Greensboro News & Record reporter looked into the state GOP's complaint with the Federal Election Commission that the Democratic Senate nominee did not properly fill out paperwork on donations jointly made by spouses.

Massie Ritsch, with the Center for Responsive Politics, more tactfully pointed out that husbands and wives who shared a bank account were allowed to give at the same time on the same check.

"This is an accounting complaint that appears to be geared more toward getting attention than getting enforcement," Ritsch said.

And, he pointed out, Dole's campaign had similar contributions on its own expense form.

"They are just trying to put their opponents on the defensive for something that happens fairly commonly," Ritsch said.

He writes that the Hagan campaign had no comment on the issue.

The N.C. Republican Party is asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate Kay Hagan.

In a letter sent Thursday by executive director Chris McClure, the party charges that the Democratic candidate did not promptly report 20 contributions just before the primary, did not list the occupations of more than a fourth of its donors and improperly filed paperwork on $180,00 worth of donations.

"None of the provisions at issue in this complaint are new," he wrote.

Under federal law, candidates are required to report large donations that come in the days leading up to an election within 48 hours. They are also required to use their "best efforts" to find the full name, address, occupation and employer of all donors.

The biggest charge in the letter is that Hagan did not split up donations that were over the $2,300 federal limit. By law, candidates must break up checks over that amount into separate donations to primary and general campaign funds or refund the money.

Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said she could not get into details without knowing exactly which donations the Republican Party had complained about, but she said the campaign filed its paperwork the same way that rival Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign did.

"We have not done anything illegal," she said. "It's no surprise that the Republican Party would file a frivolous and just plain wrong complaint. Voters have shown that they are tired of the same old attacks."

Previously: N.C. Democratic Party files complaint about Dole's photo. 

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx says bloggers need protection.

The Banner Elk Republican is one of 34 cosponsors of the Blogger Protection Act, a bill that would protect bloggers from Federal Election Commission regulations.

Two years ago, the FEC ruled that bloggers' rights to free speech should not be overriden by campaign finance laws and that blogs should be treated like other publications.

The bill, whose chief sponsor is Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, would make those rulings a federal law.

"We must not leave the First Amendment rights of bloggers in the hands of the Federal Election Commission," Foxx said in a statement. "Bloggers’ rights are too important to leave them to the whims of a panel of federal regulators."

The bill would not affect online contributions to candidates, but it would allow bloggers to linkt o campaign Web sites. 

Foxx is the only North Carolina representative among the co-sponsors. 

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies will hold a panel discussion Wednesday to discuss the possible impact of 527 organizations on the upcoming state and federal elections.

A 527 organization is a tax-exempt organization under federal tax code. The term often refers to advocacy groups, such as MoveOn.org and the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, that avoid regulation by the Federal Election Commission and state elections.

It is illegal for such groups to coordinate advertising with campaigns.

The panel will include Republican consultant Carter Wrenn, Democratic consultant Brad Crone, N.C. Board of Elections Chairman Larry Leake and election law attorney James Bopp. WRAL-TV anchor David Crabtree will moderate.

The event will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception at the Cardinal Club in Raleigh. The panels will be from 6:15 to 8 p.m. For more information, contact phil.strach@ogletreedeakins.com.

The political fight over who should run the Federal Election Commission seems unlikely to hurt Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

Because of a confirmation fight in the Senate, the FEC is down from its normal six commissioners, to just two commissioners. That is not enough for a quorum.

But the FEC last year approved the $8.8 million that Edwards’ presidential candidate is scheduled to receive for participating in the public financing system, reports Rob Christensen.

The Edwards campaign is scheduled to receive the money in March. It may not mean a new infusion of cash for Edwards because campaigns typically borrow against public financing money they expect to receive.

The one potential problem for Edwards is that the public financing fund - paid for through federal income tax check offs - is currently low. So candidates may not get all their money right away.

In a set back for Democratic presidential John Edwards' campaign, the Federal Election Commission has ruled that contributions raised from a liberal Internet site can't be used for matching federal money

Edwards has raised about $4.4 million through the ActBlue, a non-connected political committee that raises money in small denominations over the Internet.

The Edwards campaign had asked for an advisory ruling on whether the ActBlue money could be treated like individual contributions and used as matching money, reports Rob Christensen. Unlike Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Edwards has agreed to participate in public financing.

The Edwards campaign has said it expects to raise at least $10 million in matching funds. Edwards campaign officials said they did not include the ActBlue money in their calculations.

There was no immediate comment from the Edwards campaign.