A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ronnie Shows says Republican allegations of campaign finance misconduct are &uot;old news.&uot;

The National Republican Congressional Committee has filed a complaint about about illegal campaign contributions accepted by Shows’ campaign committee.

&uot;This is old news,&uot; said Burns Strider, communications director for Shows, D-Miss. &uot;This happened in a previous election.

&uot;If the NRCC was so committed to campaign finance why didn’t they file a complaint a year ago when this came up?&uot;

Strider said Shows returned more than $45,000 in campaign contributions last year when he discovered they were made illegally.

NRCC spokeswoman Merit Babin said the complaint was filed now because the committee needed to gather evidence for the complaint.

&uot;… Congressman Shows received numerous illegal contributions in the form of corporate contributions and excessive contributions,&uot; the complaint states.

&uot;He did not, however, refund these contributions until after his successful bid for U.S. Congress in 1998. On Jan. 29, 2000, he filed an amended mid-year report for 1999 which showed over $45,000 in illegal contributions.&uot;

Shows, who was elected in 1998 to fill Mike Parker’s term after he left to run for governor, is up for re-election this year.

Dunn Lampton is his Republican opponent in the November general election.

Strider said Shows has &uot;over 26 years of elected public office experience without a problem.&uot;

Strider said Shows supports campaign finance reform efforts.

Federal election rules prevent candidates from taking contributions more than $1,000 from individuals or contributions of more than $3,000 from political action committees.

A spokeswoman from the Federal Elections Commission confirmed Friday afternoon that the FEC, the government’s independent regulatory body for elections, received the complaint Friday.

But spokeswoman Kelly Huff said she could not talk about the complaint in detail because records are kept private.

Huff did say Shows’ office has 15 days to respond to the complaint and explain why action should not be taken. If the FEC&160;decides to take action, the most that can happen is a civil penalty, Huff said.

That would assessed after a conciliation agreement was made between the FEC and campaign committee.

The penalty would be no greater than $5,500 or 100 percent of the amount in question, Huff said.