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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Mayor David N. Cicilline's campaign will refund some, but not all, of the $750,000 in donations to his re-election campaign so that supporters can contribute to his federal campaign for Congress, according to campaign spokesman Brett P. Smiley.
The campaign will make a decision soon on which supporters it will reach out to offer a refund," said Smiley. "It's not going be a blanket refund to all donors."
Cicilline earlier on Wednesday had said the campaign would refund past donations and ask supporters to contribute to the new campaign.
Federal election regulations prohibit direct transfers from a local campaign to a federal campaign, according to Christian Hilland, spokesman for the Federal Elections Commission. However, he said, under federal Election Regulation 110.3, a local campaign can refund contributions to donors and ask that they re-contribute to a federal campaign fund.
A local campaign can also contribute into a federal campaign, but, like individual campaign contributions, it is limited to $2,400 per election and $4,800 in an election cycle (primary and general election), he said.
Cicilline, a two-term Democrat, hopes to convince many donors that, as a congressman, he can pursue many of the issues he championed as mayor -- from the development of a medical and bio-tech hub in the downtown, to a metropolitan transit system and public education reform.
"I believe I can convince many donors making that case," Cicilline said. "But it's a decision that donors will ultimately have to make. I'll have to earn it, like every other candidate."
Cicilline announced Saturday that he would run for the 1st District seat, following U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy's announcement that he would not seek re-election.
Bill Fischer, campaign spokesman for former state Democratic Party Chairman William J. Lynch, who stepped down from office this month to run for Kennedy's seat, was doubtful that Cicilline's new campaign would enjoy the same rate of donations as his local account.
"Donors based their original decision to donate under the guise that the mayor was running for re-election, not Congress," he said.
Lynch does not have a federal campaign account but his campaign is in the process of creating one, said Fischer.
If most of his past donors agree, Cicilline, a Democrat in his second term, could quickly become the front-runner in the First District race, since he already enjoys a substantial amount of name recognition statewide, according to political observers.
Republican candidate John J. Loughlin II, a three-term state representative from Tiverton, raised $110,000 for his congressional run by the end of 2009, making him the current fundraising leader.
Cicilline, who raised nearly $400,000 in 2009 alone, has a local campaign account of $759,284 as of Dec. 31, 2009, the most recent public record available.
But Hilland, of the FEC, says the cost of refunding local donations and soliciting funds for a federal campaign must be borne by a federal campaign. According to Smiley, the Cicilline campaign mailed to the FEC on Wednesday the forms required to establish that account.
