As watchdog files complaint, US vice-presidential candidate says men in her position would not face same scrutiny

The storm over Sarah Palin's lavish clothing budget continued today as a watchdog group filed a campaign finance complaint against her, while the vice-presidential nominee herself blamed the row on sexism.

In a complaint filed to the US federal election commission, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) argued that Republicans violated campaign finance rules when they spent $150,000 (£96,000) on clothes for Palin and her family.

The purchases came from a joint account, controlled by both national Republicans and John McCain's campaign. At issue is whether the "personal use" ban on buying clothes with campaign money – a reform promoted by McCain himself – applies to such joint accounts.

"It is ridiculous that [Republicans] would spend $150,000 to outfit a vice-presidential nominee and her family at any time, but it is more outrageous given the dire financial straits of so many Americans and the state of our economy," said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Crew and a federal prosecutor during the Clinton administration.

"As if that isn't bad enough, the expenditures violate campaign finance law."

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune newspaper, Palin suggested that male candidates who dressed sharply for the campaign trail would not have faced the same scrutiny.

"I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary

race," Palin said. "Do you remember the conversations that took place about

her? Say, superficial things that they don't talk about with men, her

wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that? That's a bit of that double

standard," she said.

Palin said the clothes purchased were not in line with her family's personality and most of them were sitting unopened on her campaign plane.

"The whole thing is just bad!" she said. "Oh, if only people knew how

frugal we are. It's kind of painful to be criticised for something when all

the facts are not out there and are not reported."

The Crew complaint is unlikely to come before the election commission

ahead of the election on November 4. But it does keep the Palin clothes budget on the political agenda for another day at a time when negative press of any kind could damage the McCain camp.

Campaign finance experts are split on the legality of the purchases, with some concluding that the Republican national committee was allowed to buy the clothes and other election lawyers wondering whether regulators would use the occasion to set a new policy on the subject.