Senate candidate files FEC complaint against CNN, O'Rourke

A senate candidate is filing a campaign finance violation complaint against CNN and Congressman Beto O'Rourke.

Libertarian Neal Dikeman is running for U.S. Senate against Democrat O'Rourke and Republican incumbent Senator Ted Cruz.

Dikeman is claiming that by offering to host a one-hour primetime townhall with just O’Rourke after Senator Cruz declined, that CNN offered an illegal in-kind campaign contribution of about $10 million to O’Rourke.

A press release from Dikeman's campaign outlined the complaint, "The complaint describes a violation of FECA, that as Senator Ted Cruz declined to participate in CNN's proposed October 18 townhall with Beto O'Rourke, the townhall debate can no longer qualify as a debate, which requires multiple candidates, and the format of this hour long prime time CNN hosted and moderated townhall with one candidate alone is clearly not typical of news coverage made generally available to or on other candidates, the other permitted pathway under the FECA.  As a result this single candidate townhall becomes an in-kind donation by a corporation, which is a prohibited campaign contribution by law."

Dikeman says it's the largest single campaign finance violation complaint in history.