Seven years after McCain-Feingold, poll after poll reveals that Americans continue to resoundingly endorse campaign finance reform. In October 2008, with the nation in the grips of a historic election, a USA Today/Gallup poll found that 57% believe there must be limits on spending by presidential candidates, including 66% of independents and 64% of Republicans.

It is rather unfortunate that philosophical opposition to campaign finance reform by three members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the very agency charged with administering and enforcing campaign finance legislation, appears to be muzzling momentum for taking the big money out of our broken political system. According to Talking Points Memo, three Republicans on the six-member FEC, led by no less than Tom DeLay's former ethics lawyer, have repeatedly voted as a block against the agency's performance of its basic regulatory functions.

Be it George Soros's failure to report a whopping $272,000 spent on advertising an anti-Bush book during the 2004 presidential campaign or the conservative Americans for Limited Government's misuse of FEC disclosure reports to discourage donors from making contributions, the three commissioners have turned a blind eye to violations of election law on both sides of the aisle. Now, that's not the kind of bipartisanship we need in Washington.

In our fight for a more open and accountable government, the challenge of moving forward comprehensive campaign finance legislation in Congress is hard enough. The least the American people can expect from their commissioners on the FEC is that they leave their politics out the door and instead fulfill their obligation to faithfully enforce our nation's campaign finance laws.

Read about this past week's efforts by Common Cause. We have another occasion to celebrate: Common Cause is relaunched in the state of Hawaii.

Federal Elections Commission (FEC): Time to Rethink It

CC President Bob Edgar sent a letter on May 21 to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Chair, Senator Dianne Feinstein, to coincide with their meeting to consider the nominations of three candidates to the FEC. He stated that it is time to rethink the FEC. He urged them to take advantage of the opportunity their meeting affords by embarking on a plan to create a new and better designed federal election agency that could enforce the campaign finance laws Congress passes and that would avoid the politicization that has made the current FEC an ineffective and failed agency. CC believes there are models for an FEC that Congress can adopt that will put upholding the nation’s campaign finance laws above party loyalty. One model of other more effective law enforcement agencies, for example, are those agencies headed by a single administrator who is appointed for a fixed term by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Two Post editorials today on campaign finance and election issues.  The first criticizes the recent attention to lobbyists within the Obama and McCain campaigns, and includes a strong argument for public financing.  My take: the Post is mostly right.  They're wrong to dismiss the lobbyist question entirely--it IS a powerful illustration of how power players and powerful influences move within Washington and through federal campaigns--but they're right that it's not a long-term prescription for change.The second piece takes a look at the FEC -- or lack thereof -- and highlights one of the most egregiously partisan nomination maneuvers in an agency that is defined by partisan maneuvers.

Here's a recap of Common Cause's work over the past two weeks. We're celebrating hard-won victories regarding the FEC and FCC and highlighting other important work throughout the country.

Federal Election Commission (FEC): We Stopped The White House Again!
On May 16 controversial White House nominee Hans von Spakovsky withdrew his name from consideration for a position on the FEC. Common Cause, working with a coalition of voting rights and reform groups, had opposed von Spakovsky because of his work at the Justice Department rolling back voting rights laws.

My former colleague, Meredith McGehee, has a scathing, incisive piece on the pathetic Federal Election Commission in Roll Call today ($$ - but an excerpt here from Josh Z).  In it she says:

Who was a key player in the design of the FEC 30+ years ago?  A US Rep long forgotten to history, but a fearsome power in the House at the time.  Wayne Hays chaired the House Administration Committee and the DCCC, wielding power over everything from campaign laws to campaign money and office furniture -- and abusing his power to a degree that would make Tom Delay envious.

When Hays did not succeed in blocking reform legislation entirely, he made sure that the FEC would not be able to enforce the law.

He was brought down in a scandal - hiring a "secretary", Elizabeth Ray, who later said, "I can't type, I can't file, I can't even answer the phone."  But part of his legacy, the FEC, lives on.

The good news about Hans von Spakovsky withdrawing his name from FEC nomination should not obscure the need for a fundamental overhaul of the FEC.  As Meredith McGehee writes in today's Roll Call (sub req'd), the months-long drama over the FEC highlights its overtly partisan and perpetually ineffective history, and she calls for an overhaul to what she labels the "Failure to Enforce Commission."

Campaign finance reformers, voting rights advocates, and the general public scored a victory today as Hans von Spakovsky withdrew his nomination to the FEC.

This likely clears the way for the Senate to confirm the remaining five nominees as a package.  While we still have grave concerns over one of those nominees, Don McGhan, and concerns over the absence of another, David Mason, for what appears to be partisan retribution, we've said all along that Hans is not appropriate for the FEC and should not be approved.  And this makes it possible that we'll actually have an FEC in time for the 2008 election, which isn't a bad thing.

Good work team, again.

After last week's series of disappointing non-resolutions to the FEC nomination mess, Sen. Harry Reid pushed back and demanded that the White House either remove Hans von Spakovsky or allow individual votes on the slate of FEC nominees.  (Roll Call subscription req'd.)