Sharpton Agrees to Repay Funds Received for His 2004 Campaign

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - The Rev. Al Sharpton has agreed to repay $100,000, plus interest, in taxpayer money that he received as part of his 2004 presidential campaign, under an agreement announced Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.

The repayment stems from a dispute Mr. Sharpton's campaign had with the commission over his personal loans to his campaign.

Around the time Mr. Sharpton made the loans, he was touring churches around the country, collecting "love offerings," which were payments to support him as a minister. He then gave about $110,000 to his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

To qualify for federal matching funds, a candidate must not spend more than $50,000 of his own money on the campaign. An investigation by the commission concluded that Mr. Sharpton had spent more than $110,000 of his own money.

The repayment agreement was signed last week. A spokesman for the commission, Ian Stirton, said Mr. Sharpton had already paid $50,000 and was scheduled to make two further payments, in January and February.

Mr. Sharpton's former campaign manager, Charles Halloran, said the campaign had decided it would be too expensive to continue fighting. In its last filing of 2004, the Sharpton campaign reported more than $500,000 in debts.

"It would have cost more than $100,000 to fight and win this battle," Mr. Halloran said. He added that the commission should "clean up its statutory language."

Mr. Sharpton applied for federal matching funds in January 2004 and was declared eligible for the money two months later. Less than two weeks after that decision, however, the Sharpton campaign filed a finance report indicating the candidate had exceeded the limit on personal financing.

Mr. Halloran had long argued that the $50,000 limit on a candidate's spending applies only after the campaign has received matching funds, and that the bulk of Mr. Sharpton's payments occurred before he received the $100,000.

"It's still the opinion of everyone involved in the Sharpton campaign that the statute wasn't violated," Mr. Halloran said, adding, however, that Mr. Sharpton "wanted to put the matter behind him rather than fight a protracted legal case."