Jeff Beatty, the Republican challenging John Kerry this year, raised money for his run last year without properly disclosing his candidacy, the Boston Globe reported Sunday.

[img_assist|nid=168|title=Jeff Beatty (R)|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=99|height=180]Beatty, of Harwich, raised $560,000 in 2007, according to the report, while he was in an exploratory phase of his candidacy. By remaining in that phase, Beatty was exempt from the Federal Election Commission's quarterly filing requirements.

The Globe report cites several election law specialists that said the language Beatty used in fundraising mailings that were sent to 35,000 contributors across the country during 2007 demonstrated that Beatty was not in the exploratory phase of his candidacy, but was, in fact, running.

"To claim this operation is an exploratory committee rather than a campaign committee through the simple expedient of using the term 'exploratory' is akin to putting lipstick on a pig," Paul S. Ryan, the FEC program director with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington, told the Globe. "It's absurd."

The four-page fundraising letter, obtained by the Globe, Beatty wrote that his "campaign team is laying plans to recruit and build an army of grassroots supporters and leaders like you to help me with this battle in 2008."

The former CIA officer also said his team had "set out on the road to defeat John Kerry and replace him in the U.S. Senate."

Only one reference to the campaign being in an "exploratory phase" appears in the letter, according to the Globe. Beatty also wrote in the letter that that his candidacy's "exploration" has drawn media attention at another point.

"He is clearly a candidate when he wrote this," Sarah Dufendach, Common Cause national vice president for legislative affairs, told the Globe after reading the letter. "How more clear can you be? This isn't even a close call."

The Beatty campaign responded forcefully, saying that it followed FEC rules "to the letter" in a statement.

"The headline for this article should be 'Jeff Beatty follows all the rules, listens to regular people, and some don't like it,'" Joe Manzoli, Beatty's campaign manager, said in the statement. "We notice that the only one's not quoted in that story is the FEC - whose rules this campaign followed."

Manzoli said the report fails to mention the organization Beatty has successfully built.

"Instead of focusing on this non-story of what Jeff Beatty has done right to build this incredible grassroots effort, the real story is about a corrupt system dominated by special interests that favors the rich and the powerful instead of the common person," Manzoli said. "Jeff Beatty's campaign puts people first, is focused on the issues they care about, and now special interests are put on notice."