Reform Groups: Fix the FEC, Mr. President!

 

The Federal Election Commission is the sole watchdog overseeing the increasingly shadowy world of US campaign finance, and by most accounts, it is a hopeless shell of regulator. In a sharply worded letter (PDF) sent to President Obama today, eight good government groups implored the president to pay more attention to the broken FEC, and to consider replacing five of the agency’s commissioners who, come May 1, will be eligible to be replaced. “The effort to remake the FEC and restore the integrity of our campaign finance laws cannot begin until you nominate new Commissioners,” the letter reads.

The groups behind the letter include Democracy 21, a strong supporter of campaign finance reform, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Public Citizen, and Common Cause, among others. They call the FEC “a national campaign finance scandal,” and point to agency’s three Republican commissioners—Don McGahn, Matthew Petersen, and Caroline Hunter—as the root of the FEC’s problems. “The actions of these Commissioners,” the reform groups write, “have turned the FEC into a rogue, non-functioning enforcement agency.”

Here’s an example of the FEC’s dysfunction cited in today’s letter:

According to a BNA Report (March 4, 2011), the FEC professional staff found through audits that the Kansas Republican party and a unit of Georgia Democratic party each had improperly used campaign funds. Three Commissioners voted to support the FEC staff’s findings in both cases.

The three obstructionist Commissioners, however, voted to reject the staff’s recommendations in both cases and thereby blocked findings that the Republican and Democratic Party committees each had committed campaign finance violations.

And that kind of deadlock is all too frequent at the FEC, which was created in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. To replace the current crop of commissioners, the eight reform groups suggest the president create a bipartisan “advisory group” to hand-pick qualified candidates, even though the process is traditionally handled by Congress.

Bypassing Congress on the FEC won’t help the president move his other agenda items forward. But the reform groups say the president cannot stay idle in his handling of the agency. There’s too much at stake. Several billion dollars are expected to be spent on the 2012 presidential race alone. 

Read the groups’ letter to President Obama:

Reform Groups’ Letter to President Obama on FEC

 

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate