[EL] My e-mail, of five years ago, to Matthew Petersen

[Steve Hoersting]

In light of the article in yesterday's BNA, I have decided to provide you
the entire e-mail that formed a part of that article.

The e-mail was written over five years ago, congratulating Matt Petersen on
his confirmation to a seat on the Federal Election Commission.

While I might alter some wording if writing today, I believe that anyone at
all familiar with the agency -- and particularly those familiar with the
recent desire of the FEC's 6th floor to work directly with DOJ -- will see
that my advice was good advice then. It is good advice today.

-- 
Stephen M. Hoersting

Congratulations, Commissioner!
Inbox
x
Steve Hoersting <shoersting at campaignfreedom.org>
7/10/08
to mpetersen


-- 
Steve Hoersting
Vice President
CENTER FOR COMPETITIVE POLITICS
124 West Street South
Suite 201
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
SHoersting at campaignfreedom.org
www.campaignfreedom.org
(703) 894-6800 phone
MPetersen at fec.gov
7/10/08
to Steve

Thanks, Steve.

By the way, if you have any recommendations regarding anyone you think
would make a good executive assistant, please let me know.

Talk to you soon.
------------------------------

 ----- Original Message -----
*  From: *"Steve Hoersting" [shoersting at campaignfreedom.org]
*  Sent: *07/10/2008 07:03 PM AST
*  To: *Matthew Petersen
*  Subject: *Congratulations, Commissioner!



-- 
Steve Hoersting
Vice President
CENTER FOR COMPETITIVE POLITICS
124 West Street South
Suite 201
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
SHoersting at campaignfreedom.org
www.campaignfreedom.org
(703) 894-6800 phone
Steve Hoersting <shoersting at campaignfreedom.org>
7/11/08
to MPetersen
Your welcome, Matt.  BTW, that is "executive assistantS," plural.

The only advice I gave Don was to:

1) Never underestimate the staff, OGC -- even if they are a new crop.  The
6th and 4th floors always try to roll Commissioners; never doubt this.  And
every dog will have his day... .

2) When deciding whether to hire a good secretary (SA), or hire more legal
talent (EAs), hire the more legal talent and make them do the secretarial
duties you require.  Republican Commission offices (and the Sandstrom
office of yore) are essentially defense counsel to the prosecutors that are
the 6th floor of the FEC.  You will need all of the legal horsepower you
can hire.

An added bit of advice to you.  There is no nice way to say it:  At some
point, McGahn will be an asshole.  He'll insist he knows the better course
on an issue and will insist you go along.  Don likes to employ the "trust
me" method of persuasion.  Make him explain himself, nonetheless.

Don's gruff demeanor is always worse than how he actually feels about
something.  Don't read too much into it.  And don't cower, Commissioner.

Pre-meeting caucuses (usually Monday afternoons) are a good thing.  They
can cramp one's schedule, but, on the whole, they are beneficial.

Oh, and make sure your office is getting enough copies of everything (1
green, 1 yellow for enforcement matters; two blue for policy matters) so
the EA handling, say, enforcement gets a document as soon as you do.

Good luck.  I have no recommendations for EA.  In this job, you want an
ideologue, not (just) a partisan.  Knowing D from R is good at the end of
the day, but it gives you NO ammo where you'll need it most: at the dais.
If you don't yet know what I mean, observe some of the nonsense that will
spring from Ellen's mouth as she goes out of her way to protect the Ds.
Some of it just won't make any sense, and will have little or no basis in
the statute.  Don't let it happen to you.  Hire lawyers as EAs, one's who
put law above partisanship.
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