State GOP files federal complaint against Obama for visit to sick grandma

The complaint is centered around the allegation that the Obama camp used campaign funds to travel to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. From the California Republican Party:

Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use. Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. This was the right thing for any grandson to do-at his own expense-but it was not travel that his campaign may fund. In Senator Obama's own words, his travels took him "off the [campaign] trail for a day." The trip featured no campaign events of any kind its 22-hour duration and his decision to travel was "not driven by political concerns," according to an Obama spokesperson. Since the trip's purpose was entirely and admittedly personal, the fact that he made campaign telephone calls and talked with staff aides while traveling does not convert this purely personal trip into a proper campaign expense. Therefore, the Obama Campaign violated the FEC's ban on "personal use" of campaign funds when it paid over $100,000 for the Campaign's charter to fly to Hawaii without obtaining reimbursement from Senator Obama

Sounds like they might have a legitimate complaint (does it count as campaign travel if you bring your staff members with you but don't actually campaign?), but it makes little sense to me from a PR standpoint. I guess they are looking to make this a campaign issue considering that people are voting tomorrow, and that this issue has already been raised by cable news pundits.

Of course, if Obama does win tomorrow, it sure isn't going to look good for him to be hit with a campaign violation in a couple of months.

The state party also filed a complaint about Obama's association with ACORN, though I am not sure why this is a legitimate complaint:

Obama for America unlawfully hid its interaction with Project Vote, an affiliate of scandal-plagued Acorn. According to recent court testimony by an Acorn whistleblower, the Obama Campaign provided Project Vote with its major-donor list in an effort to further Project Vote's registration of left-leaning voters.

Is the issue that the Obama campaign should have disclosed who it gave its major-donor list to? I have never heard that campaigns have to disclose this, but I am no election law expert. I just dispatched an email to an expert.... if I get a response I will post it.

Update: As I was typing this I got a news alert that Obama's grandmother had died. Bad timing for the CRP to be making this complaint.