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Wadsworth Republican Rep. Jim Renacci was sworn into a second-term in Congress last year after winning his 2012 re-election campaign against former Copley Township Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton

(Sabrina Eaton/The Plain Dealer)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Federal Election Commission

that it fined Rep. Jim Renacci's re-election campaign $9,749 for

a contribution of nearly $100,000 the candidate made to his campaign in 2012.

Candidates who get large campaign donations in the days immediately before an election are required to report them to the Federal Election Commission within 48 hours of their receipt. The FEC says the Wadsworth Republican didn't file the required 48-hour disclosure form on the $96,393.90 contribution.

"Our records indicate that Jim Renacci for Congress did not submit 48-hour notices for contributions of $1,000 or more received on October 30, 2012," the FEC said.

Renacci's campaign argued it should not be fined because the transaction was merely a book-keeping mechanism that did not reflect a new influx of money. It said the committee engaged in debt retirement fundraising earlier that year to repay loans Renacci made to his 2010 campaign. He repaid some of the old loan, and then loaned his committee "the exact same amount for use in the 2012 election," the campaign told the FEC.

"The fact of the matter is, no funds were 'received' in connection to this transaction, and so the 48-hour reporting requirement could not have been triggered," said paperwork filed by Renacci's attorney, William J. McGinley, filed with the FEC.

The FEC's lawyers argued that while the aggregate loan balance may have remained unchanged, the earlier loans were all designated for previous elections.

"The Oct. 30 loan of $96,393.90 substantially increased the Committee's available 2012 General Election funds just seven days before the general election," said paperwork from the FEC. "As a last-minute contribution that was not reported on a 48-hour notice, the loan escaped pre-election disclosure."

On Monday, Renacci's campaign released a statement that described the reporting omission as a "minor administrative error."

"Unlike the massive $375,000 fine the FEC imposed on the Obama campaign for over 1,000 reporting violations, this was a minor administrative error tied to a loan from the candidate that our campaign reported to the FEC but which was accidentally omitted on one of the hundreds of pages we file throughout the course of the year," the statement said. "This common clerical mistake, which has impacted legislators from Harry Reid to Nancy Pelosi, was brought to the attention of the FEC when we reported the loan on our end-of-year report, and the matter has been resolved."