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Delaware AG Defers Questions About Campaign Finance Investigation

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DOVER, Del. (AP) - Attorney General Beau Biden's office is refusing to answer questions about fellow Democrat Gov. Jack Markell's handling of potentially illegal campaign contributions.

In a letter to Delaware's Republican Party chairman Tuesday, Biden's office reiterated that questions about charitable donations made by Markell's camp equal to the questionable campaign contributions should be directed to an independent counsel.

That independent counsel was appointed by Biden in 2011 amid a campaign finance scandal involving donations to several candidates, including Biden and his father.

GOP chairman Charles Copeland has pressed Biden and Delaware's election commissioner to investigate the Markell donations, saying they're responsible for enforcing Delaware's campaign finance laws.

Those laws say improper contributions must be returned to donors within seven days but contain no provision allowing them to be offset with charitable contributions.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.