I'll start a timer to track how long it is until a real news outlet makes McCain answer the tough FEC violations directly. Something even as simple as "Why do you not feel obligated to follow the law you spearheaded? Was it a poorly conceived law, or are you just an exception?"
Dont hold your breath, the FEC is an empty shell at the moment, because they dont have a quorum of commissioners to hear any complaints or issue any rulings. Why? beacuse the Democrats won't allow the vote to appoint new commissioners to happen. No One is minding the store at the FEC and no one will be until after the election.
fight leaves candidates hanging
By MARTIN KADY II | 4/23/08 4:28 AM EST Text Size:
Without a quorum, the FEC won’t be able to “certify” McCain’s eligibility for $84.1 million in public financing for the general election.
Photo: AP
In 2004, the Federal Election Commission took 231 formal votes. This year, it may take none.
With November’s elections a little more than six months away, a Senate stalemate over nominations has left the FEC powerless to act on anything from John McCain’s bid for $84 million in public financing to a stay-at-home dad’s request to pay himself a small salary from whatever campaign contributions he can raise as an independent candidate for Congress.
With only two of its six commissioners in place — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White House can’t agree on how to handle nominations to the empty seats — the FEC lacks the four-person quorum needed to take any official action.
That means no investigations can officially begin, no new rules can be made and no legally binding opinions can be offered. It means lobbyists get a free pass for another year to bundle campaign donations without revealing what they’ve done, and independent groups can spend money with impunity and not worry until well after the election whether they’ll be investigated.
It’s hard to calculate the political impact of the FEC’s inability to make certain decisions, but it may be as simple as this: Voters across America may see controversial political ads funded by shady groups who have no fear of being investigated or fined until well after the election. And creative election lawyers will have a field day exploring murky areas of election law since the FEC is not issuing advisory opinions.
“It is an example of Washington not functioning well,” says Michael Toner, a former FEC commissioner who is now with the political consulting firm Bryan Cave. “This standoff has a disproportionate impact on candidates who actually want to comply with the law. … And it creates the incentive to push the envelope” by bad actors.
See Also
Clinton frames win as sign of strength
GI Bill overhaul hits hurdles
Why Clinton won Pennsylvania
Some election experts downplay the sky-is-falling rhetoric, saying that people who violate the law will still be punished eventually — and that the FEC rarely issues enforcement actions until well after elections anyway.
“It’s not going to affect people’s everyday lives,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “And I don’t see what the Democrats’ incentive is to play ball — it’s under the radar and there’s no political heat on this.”
But for political insiders — those who give, get and spend campaign money — the uncertainty caused by the nomination stalemate is very real indeed.
The highest-profile problems arise in the presidential race, of course. Without a quorum, the FEC couldn’t rule in February when McCain asked to withdraw from the federal matching funds program for the Republican primary.
Without a quorum, the FEC couldn’t address questions surrounding McCain’s apparent use of the matching funds as collateral for a bank loan. Without a quorum, the FEC can’t rule on a Democratic National Committee complaint challenging McCain’s attempt to get out from under the matching funds spending limit for the primaries.
And without a quorum, the FEC won’t be able to “certify” McCain’s eligibility for $84.1 million in public financing for the general election, meaning he’ll need judicial intervention, a legislative fix from Congress or perhaps a massive line of credit using the promise of eventual public financing as collateral.
Another high-profile problem: Without a quorum, the FEC can’t issue the regulations needed to enforce a requirement that lobbyists disclose the contributions they “bundle” for presidential and congressional campaigns. The disclosure requirement was part of the post-Abramoff lobbying reform bill Congress passed last year — Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pushed for the bundling-disclosure provision — but it’s a meaningless law as long as there aren’t any regulations to put it into effect.
Also in limbo are so-called hybrid ads that combine national political party money and presidential campaign funds to promote lower-level congressional races. The legality of these hybrid ads — which the Bush-Cheney campaign used to the tune of $81 million in 2004 — has been called into question, but the FEC cannot issue a new rule on the ads without the quorum it now lacks.
All enforcement actions — the cases that can lead to fines against companies and independent groups — are also on hold for now.
