ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1994                   TAG: 9410050105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press RICHMOND
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


WILDER MUST PAY $28,000

The Federal Election Commission ordered former Gov. Douglas Wilder to repay the state more than $28,000 for using a state plane as he sought the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination.

Wilder's campaign understated the amount to be paid to the state for the trips in late 1991, the FEC ruled Monday.

The lawyer for Wilder's campaign, Leslie J. Kerman, said the campaign will contest what it claims is the FEC's overstatement of the sum Wilder should have paid.

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 the FEC said the Wilder campaign disregarded that law.

``We consistently paid what the state required,'' Kerman said.

The FEC also said nearly $2,800 in campaign funds was used illegally to pay for vacation flights for Wilder in 1991.

Kerman said the campaign intends to repay the FEC the $2,785 for the vacation flights.

Wilder and a companion took a state airplane to New York's Kennedy Airport to catch a connecting flight for a Switzerland vacation and for the return leg from New York to Richmond. Wilder initially charged the flights to taxpayers, but after the flights were publicized, he agreed to cover them himself. Instead, the FEC said, Wilder reimbursed the state with campaign funds, in violation of federal election law.

The FEC earlier ordered Wilder's campaign to pay about $40,000 to 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funds that Wilder's campaign spent on items that are not allowed by federal law, including staff salaries after he had withdrawn from the race.

Keywords:
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