Democrats criticize McCain over campaign finance

By Andy Sullivan

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (Reuters) - The Democratic Party asked the U.S. government on Monday to investigate whether Republican presidential candidate John McCain has violated campaign-finance laws by exceeding spending limits he agreed to last year.

In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, the Democratic National Committee said McCain has probably surpassed the roughly $50 million limit he agreed to observe when he applied for public funding last year.

McCain, the front-runner for the Republican nomination to contest November's presidential election should not be allowed to withdraw from the public-funding system now that he no longer needs it, the DNC argued.

"He intends to simply ignore and flout the law," it said. "Senator McCain is not free to do that without the Commission's approval."

At a campaign stop in suburban Cleveland, McCain noted that Democratic committee Chairman Howard Dean had similarly withdrawn from the system when he was a presidential candidate in 2004.

"What we're doing is exactly what Howard Dean did in the previous election," the Arizona senator said.

The DNC said Dean obtained permission from the FEC before leaving the public funding system, which was set up in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal.

McCain applied for public funding last year at a time when his White House bid was regarded as a long shot and his campaign was nearly out of cash.