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.)
After months without a functioning FEC, as we called on Senate leadership to find suitable nominees and re-constitute the important -- if often ineffectual -- commission in time for the peak of election season, this week it looked like we might have caught a break. Sen. Harry Reid's office spoke with the White House, and the White House sent six FEC nominations (three D, three R) to the Senate.
How quickly hopes can crumble.
We've recently heard that Sen. Mitch McConnell is poised to insist on a package deal -- all or none -- rather than allowing each nominee to get an up or down vote.
This is an unworkable proposal, not unexpected from McConnell, a bitter opponent to all campaign finance regulation. First, the choice of nominees reflects a remarkably partisan and subversive intention towards the FEC, in particular the selection of Hans von Spakovsky and Donald McGhan and the removal of current chairman David Mason from the list. CC Prez Bob Edgar sent this letter to the entire U.S. Senate on Wednesday. Here's part of his beef:
We continue to oppose the White House's choice of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC and urge Senators to vote against his confirmation.
We also oppose the nomination of Donald McGhan to the FEC. McGhan served as counsel to former Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX) on matters of campaign finance reform and ethics. As you know, Mr. Delay was indicted on campaign finance violations by the U.S. Attorney's office in Texas and was admonished repeatedly by the House Commission of Official Standards of Conduct. It would be difficult to find a more ill-suited candidate.
The subject of stripping Mason's name off the list brought back memories of a similar purge in Common Cause's early days, however, and is in some ways the most egregious piece of this whole maneuver.
Wednesday, tomorrow, the Senate Rules committee will vote on the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the Federal Elections Commission. He's a bad choice for FEC commissioner. We said as much to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the committee, back in June.
Now, von Spakovsky is probably okay with the committee voting on his nomination--because no minority voters will be casting a ballot. In all seriousness, he's spent several years pushing to undermine voting rights, which especially impact minority communities. From our letter:
During his tenure at the U.S. Department of Justice, "Mr. von Spakovsky was central to the administration's pursuit of strategies that had the effect of suppressing the minority vote," according to Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief.[...]
While at the Justice Department, Mr. von Spakovsky again pushed to have career attorneys overruled to gain department approval of a Georgia voter ID law that the career attorneys believe would have had a negative impact on minority voters. That law was later struck down by the courts.
His story also highlights a preference for partisanship over justice, among other serious concerns. Rules Committee members should give him a firm "nay"--and be thankful that it's not von Spakovsky himself who's in charge of counting the votes.
UPDATE: It'd probably be helpful to know who is on that Rules committee in the Senate, so you can call your Senator and register your opposition if he/she serves on the committee. Here is the list of committee members.
As you may already know, President Bush today signed into law the bill that keeps the expiring portions of the Voting Rights Act on the books for another 25 years.
But what's been more surprising has been the speed with which the bill moved through the Senate last week. That story illustrates how Congress can do amazing things in an election year.
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