U.S. Senate candidate Patricia Morgan's campaign filings under scrutiny from FEC. Here's why.

PROVIDENCE – The Federal Elections Commission put Republican U.S. Senate candidate Patricia Morgan on notice: straighten out campaign fundraising reports or face potential "enforcement actions."

Morgan, a state legislator from West Warwick who lists her occupation as "financial advisor," has received three warning letters from the FEC since March 12 for alleged irregularities in her campaign filings, including contributions that exceed the allowed $3,300-per-person contribution limit for the primary and numbers that simply do not add up.

Among the issues raised by the FEC:

• Morgan's campaign reported zero dollars in her account in the period Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2023 reporting period, having reported $35,515 in "cash-on-hand" at the end of the prior quarter.

• It then happened again, with the campaign reporting $51,053 in "cash-on-hand" on Dec. 31, 2023. She then began 2024 with a $108,732 "opening balance" on Jan. 1, with no explanation where the additional $57,679 came from. This, however, was not noted by the FEC

• She reported over-the-limit contributions from two donors, including $5,000 from Edmund Maroney and $6,600 from a Raymond Bourque who, she says, is not the developer of the same name at the center of a controversial Woonsocket land deal.

• She did not, in all cases, provide the required name, address and employer and/or occupation of each donor, instead, for example, attributing $550" to "Cash, Cash."

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FEC has no record of a response

Morgan told The Journal earlier this week that the questions the FEC raised have all been addressed.

But there's no indication on the FEC's website that Morgan's campaign responded to the letters warning her that she must respond by a set deadline or face "audit or enforcement action."

The most recent response deadline was June 4.

Asked if Morgan had responded, as she says she did, FEC Public Affairs Specialist Myles Martin emailed The Journal:

"Any responses from the committee to a Request for Additional Information (RFAI) sent by the Commission, or amended reports filed by the committee would be available on the committee’s filings page here: PATRICIA FOR RI - committee overview | FEC."

"We cannot speak to potential enforcement action due to confidentiality requirements," Martin said.

What does Morgan say?

Morgan, who is currently one of nine Republicans in the 113-member General Assembly and ran for governor in 2018, told The Journal her that treasurer, Marie Baker, responded "by email and phone," and assured her there is no problem.

Morgan at first suggested the warning letters stemmed from the creation of an account that "had a misspelling in the name" that was empty and should have been purged.

After looking at the link to her filings sent to her by The Journal and the FEC warning letters, Morgan said she double checked with her treasurer, who told her "The campaign has responded to all 3 letters via email." Requests for copies of the email have not been answered.

Asked why the numbers do not add up from one quarter to the next, Morgan said: "The former treasurer [Tammy Collins] did not roll the first quarter ... of my campaign forward into the ending balance in December. Hence the discrepancy."

She said the issue was corrected in her filing for the Jan. 1 - March 31 filing period. She did not elaborate on how it was corrected.

As for the two over-the-limit contributions, Morgan said: they "have been redesignated to reflect that they were from a relative."

Asked how Raymond Bourque or Edmund Maroney were related, she said "spouses."

It is not yet clear what difference that made in the amount they were each allowed to donate to her campaign, and whether she refunded any part of either of their contributions.

Another math quandary: Though her Q1 report for this year reflected zero expenses, Morgan said she paid staff and bought items, including a "printer, some literature and paper, 100 signs, fundraising team, etc."

The disconnect? She says she has made loans, now totaling $15,000, to her campaign and the expenses "were posted against that loan."

An uphill campaign from the start

As a Republican in a state where the GOP represents only 14% of registered voters, Morgan went into the race as a dark horse candidate at best against three-term U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who had $3,603,845 in his own campaign account in his last report.

Morgan is one of two Republicans seeking the GOP nod to run for the seat held by Democrat Whitehouse.

The other GOP candidate is Raymond McKay, who had only $10,203 in cash-on-hand as of his last report to the FEC for the quarter that ended on March 31. At that point, Morgan reported $158,318 on hand.

A state reporting issue as well

Morgan did; however, reimburse her separate state campaign account $2,473 for a series of payments she made between Jan. 1 and March 31 for "Facebook ads."

Asked how that came about, the state's campaign finance administrator, Richard Thornton told The Journal: "We caught it and we reached out to her."

He said the Board of Elections' questions were prompted by a run of Facebook ads between July 29, 2023 and Feb. 11, 2024 that contained "a mix of state and federal" campaign activity.

His email to her read, in part: "While the Facebook posts related to your state campaign are an allowable use of state campaign funds, the posts/activity relating to the federal campaign are not an allowable use of state campaign funds ... [and] must be refunded."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: FEC threatens Patricia Morgan with audit over U.S. Senate campaign filings