The Democratic Party of Virginia filed a complaint with state and federal election officials on Friday asking for an investigation into Rep. Tom Davis’ (R) campaign contributions to the re-election campaign of his wife, state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R).

Democrats charge that television ads and mailings by Devolites Davis fail to disclose that they were actually paid for by Rep. Davis’ campaign committee.

According to financial reports filed by Devolites Davis last week, the Congressman has given more than $400,000 in in-kind contributions to his wife’s campaign.

“Mrs. Devolites Davis is currently airing television advertisements and mailing print advertisements in connection with her campaign, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, that have been paid for directly by the congressional campaign committee of her husband, Congressman Tom Davis,” the letter to the Federal Election Commission and Virginia State Board of Elections said. “The television ads and mailings not only fail to disclose the true source of the financing for these communications, but also falsely convey the impression that they were paid for entirely by Ms. Devolites Davis’s campaign committee. This activity violates …‘stand by your ad’ laws.”

Tom Davis dismissed the complaint as “ridiculous” and a tactic that is being employed by the Democratic Party to distract voters from the actual issues of the campaign.

“We have cleared this thing with the state election board — there is nothing wrong with it,” Davis said. “My wife paid for the ads, all the production and put them on the air. We merely wrote a check for the extension. … This is just out of the playbook and it has zero chance of going anywhere, which is why they filed it on a Friday afternoon.”

— John McArdle