In the face of criticism stemming from a March 20 Iowa Independent report raising questions about his for-profit political advocacy organization known as I’M For Iowa, congressional candidate and former State Rep. Ed Fallon released a statement Wednesday claiming, “Campaign manager, Lynn Heuss, spoke with the information services department of the FEC. They confirmed that Ed Fallon has done nothing illegal or unethical.”

But the FEC denies confirming any facts in relation to a specific campaign.Fallon’s press release did not attribute the determination to any specific individual at the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), nor did it provide a direct transcription of the Information Services department’s answer to the campaign’s inquiry.

According to FEC spokesperson George Smaragdis, it would have been against commission policy for an employee to answer such a question as it related to any specific campaign.

“No Commission employee made any determination relative to the specific circumstances of any campaign,” Smaragdis told Iowa Independent in an emailed statement.  “Only the Commission can make such a determination.”

The commission, which currently lacks enough appointed members to issue rulings, has not yet considered any legal questions related to the contested Democratic primary between Fallon and current US Rep. Leonard Boswell.

Although Fallon claims that Boswell has accused him of violating FEC regulations, neither Boswell himself nor the numerous news reports of the story have gone as far as to claim Fallon acted illegally, and Iowa Independent’s story noted that FEC regulations do not appear to explicitly prohibit connections between a for-profit general partnership like I’M For Iowa and a federal congressional campaign.

Rather, Boswell and others have so far only alleged that Fallon’s financing practices raise ethical questions — namely, whether a federal candidate should be allowed to raise unlimited, undisclosed donations for a personal business that then uses its resources for the purposes of his or her political campaign.  Fallon’s critics have stopped short of alleging anything illegal.

In light of Fallon’s history of adhering to stricter campaign finance standards than required by law and his long-standing emphasis on campaign finance reform, operating in an apparent ethical gray area may be seen as particularly damaging to his campaign.