Kerry asking FEC to use part of his campaign fund for movie about injured vets

Kerry campaign wants to make film
By JOHN BRESNAHAN | 4/24/09 5:24 PM EDT Updated: 4/24/09 6:49 PM EDT
Text Size:

Sen. John Kerry is seeking permission to invest $300,000 in campaign funds in a documentary film on injured Iraq War veterans.


Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is seeking permission from both the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee to invest $300,000 in campaign funds in a documentary film on injured Iraq War veterans.

Under a proposed agreement with White Mountain Films, the company that would make the documentary, Kerry would serve as executive producer for the film. Kerry would not be paid. The filmmaker, George Butler, is best known for making “Pumping Iron,” a documentary about bodybuilding that helped launch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career. Butler also produced a 2004 documentary on John Kerry’s life story.

Among Kerry’s duties for the film would be “making introductions with respect to potential investors” for the documentary, which is tentatively entitled “Keeping Faith.”
...
Kerry’s request is unprecedented for a sitting senator, although Marc Elias, Kerry’s campaign lawyer, noted in his “advisory opinion request” to the FEC that the commission has given campaign committees “wide discretion in deciding how to spend their funds.”