Indiana Democrats File Ethics Complaint Against Braun

The Indiana Democratic Party Wednesday filed an ethics complaint against Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun – days after Republicans filed one against U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Braun’s opponent.

The complaint alleges Braun didn’t properly file information about a loan he made to his campaign.

Campaign finance law says candidates must report loans of more than $1,000 to the Federal Election Commission within 48 hours. The Indiana Democratic Party says one such loan – $250,000 Mike Braun gave to himself in late April – wasn’t filed within that window.

The Braun campaign disputes this. It sent a copy of the required form to Indiana Public Broadcasting, which shows the reported loan, timestamped within that 48-hour deadline.

The FEC’s website doesn’t reflect that – but likely due to a technological error. One such 48-hour report on the site is incomplete. Basically, it looks like a garbled fax. And the parts of the form that are readable appear to match up with the form the Braun campaign shared with Indiana Public Broadcasting.

FEC website 48-hour report: 

Braun campaign 48-hour report: