A Republican campaign group that set up fake 2014 election websites for Democrats, including Minnesota's Collin Peterson, has tweaked the sites to make clear that donations sent through them will benefit the GOP.
The National Republican Congressional Committee recently made the changes after Washington, D.C.-based watchdog groups raised concerns about the sites possibly violating Federal Election Commission rules.
The sites -- including http://www.collinpeterson2014.com – invite people to sign up and donate money. The donation button on the anti-Peterson site now re-directs to a page that identifies the NRCC as the recipient.
"We recently updated our contribution pages, as we frequently do, to highlight our efforts to defeat House Democrats in 2014 and prevent Nancy Pelosi from ever being Speaker of the House again," NRCC spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said in a statement.
Peterson, who represents western Minnesota's Seventh District, dismissed the site targeting him as "silly."
"I guess it's just part of their harassment campaign," he said.
Peterson has not yet announced if he will seek a 13th term in Congress. The NRCC is backing the candidacy of Republican state Sen. Torrey Westrom.
