2012 Election
Mitt Romney is expected to overwhelmingly dominate the Republican primary races in Maryland and Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The pro-Mitt Romney super PAC Restore Our Future may be the target of a Federal Election Commission investigation after a campaign finance group filed a complaint with the agency over possibly illegal campaign contributions between the outside spending group and Romney's presidential campaign.

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC on Monday, after multiple media outlets group recently pointed out that Restore Our Future recycled a television advertisement produced for Romney's 2008 presidential bid. The center said the super PAC -- an outside political spending group that can raise unlimited amounts in support of a candidate, but cannot legally coordinate with a campaign -- breached that regulation when it made an extensive ad buy to air the Romney campaign ad.

Under FEC regulations, financing the republication of any campaign materials prepared by a candidate, or an agent of the candidate, 'shall be considered a contribution for the purposes of contribution limitations' of the person or group making the expenditure, read a statement from the Campaign Legal Center. Super PACs like Restore Our Future, however, are prohibited from contributing to candidates.

The group argues the reproduction is a clear violation of federal law and called Restore Our Future a shadow campaign committee for Romney.

The two advertisements, which focus on how Romney organized a volunteer search party for his former business partner's missing teenage daughter in 1996, are almost identical in content and editing.

Here's the Restore Our Future Ad:

Now, the 2008 Romney campaign ad: