[EL] Rather Than Continued Stalemate, Federal Election Commission May Now Lead Way to Campaign Finance Deregulation

Sun Feb 19 11:08:45 PST 2017

I think the resignation gives salience to the issue and an excuse to act in a way that replacing a sitting (if termed out) commissioner does not.

Rick Hasen
Sent from my iPad
Please excuse typos

On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 10:38 AM -0800, "Paul Ryan" <PRyan at commoncause.org<mailto:PRyan at commoncause.org>> wrote:

Of course President Trump could have followed this course of action even without Commissioner Ravel's resignation--as Commissioners Walther and Weintraub are both serving beyond the expiration of their terms (as are Commissioners Goodman, Petersen and Hunter) and could be replaced by Trump nominees (with Senate confirmation) whenever he wants.  With Commissioner Ravel's resignation, President Trump can now make six rather than five nominations.  And Commissioner Ravel's term is set to expire on April 30, so President Trump could have replaced her after that date at any rate.

Commissioner Ravel's resignation is certainly a good hook to discuss the possibility that President Trump, with Senate cooperation, will create a deregulatory majority on the FEC--but her resignation neither creates, nor significantly strengthens, that possibility in my view.  Best,

Paul Seamus Ryan
Vice President, Policy & Litigation
Common Cause
(202) 262-7315

On Feb 19, 2017, at 12:28 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>> wrote:

Rather Than Continued Stalemate, Federal Election Commission May Now Lead Way to Campaign Finance Deregulation<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D91191&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804770641&sdata=Xe5ylf9J8dmSMRTIalwXeMXc4CQsfgQ4q5lscLb3BX8%3D&reserved=0>
Posted on February 19, 2017 9:20 am<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D91191&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804770641&sdata=Xe5ylf9J8dmSMRTIalwXeMXc4CQsfgQ4q5lscLb3BX8%3D&reserved=0> by Rick Hasen<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fauthor%3D3&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804770641&sdata=Y1zOhCzdwFf3T%2FCJqj1eQj7RLlwhbOgxouprrtjxqY4%3D&reserved=0>
As we have long been expecting, Federal Election Commissioner Ann Ravel has announced her resignation<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40AnnMRavel%2Fdeparting-the-federal-election-commission-fee0ae9d63a1%23.rnsxy9bev&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804770641&sdata=z3uKy4XDdyb8ciVmdVCJqn2T6QC%2FN8%2FrTPSAtdCiABs%3D&reserved=0> from the Federal Election Commission, effective March 1. For the last decade or more, beginning with the FEC tenure of Don McGahn (now the White House Counsel for President Trump), the FEC has stalemated on the most important questions about regulation of money in federal elections. Republican commissioners have pursued a deregulatory agenda, reading the laws and regulations in ways to have fewer limits, and much less disclosure, than (I believe) a fair reading of the law would allow. As Commissioner Ravel’s parting shot, she has issued a report on the stalemates, Dysfunction and Deadlock: The Enforcement Crisis at the Federal Election Commission Reveals the Unlikelihood of Draining the Swamp. <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fec.gov%2Fmembers%2Fravel%2Fravelreport_feb2017.pdf&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C1%7C636231220804780653&sdata=LFSWwtM%2B1ex8DHQAhwLCm3bQDD6E0hayrzn0u3Gvzj8%3D&reserved=0> The deadlocks have allowed a lot of questionable and illegal activity to go through because the chances of FEC enforcement (or court action in the face of a deadlocked FEC) are small.
I will miss having Commissioner Ravel on the Commission—she, along with longtime FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub—has used every opportunity to call public attention to deadlock at the FEC and the dangers to American democracy. Commissioner Ravel went further than Commissioner Weintraub, including the infamous “male nipples” segment<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D77518&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804780653&sdata=ll%2FxfQlXNYzNQ5Ickh83q3%2Btp8gttOPbD2tm0AKn8gM%3D&reserved=0> on the Daily Show.
I cannot begrudge Commissioner Ravel for wanting to leave an agency that is so dysfunctional, and where morale i<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.publicintegrity.org%2F2017%2F01%2F19%2F20599%2Fmorale-tatters-federal-election-commission-eyes-changes&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804780653&sdata=HIEv%2BJ8GCQnqjYNprdbzjtAUYbWSpPKjgo4wRykk0aw%3D&reserved=0>s among the lowest at any federal agency.
And yet, things may now get much, much worse with her departure.
As I explained to Eric Lichtblau in the New York Times<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F02%2F19%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ffec-elections-ann-ravel-campaign-finance.html%3Fhp%26action%3Dclick%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26clickSource%3Dstory-heading%26module%3Db-lede-package-region%26region%3Dtop-news%26WT.nav%3Dtop-news%26_r%3D0&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804780653&sdata=Y1YF%2F%2FZo8LnxjOatMxEGoj78SzqtCRKMXdh1blpc3b8%3D&reserved=0>, the departure is potentially transformative, because now President Trump can use the vacancy to break the deadlock and turn the agency  into an engine for deregulation. Here’s how:
By law, no more than three commissioners on the FEC can be of the same political party. Generally this has meant three Democrats (or commissioners siding with Democrats) and three Republicans. The President has generally given the leadership of the party in the Senate on the other side a chance to pick commissioners from that party (though there was a dispute <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D9510&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804780653&sdata=3XMBRNGsVXeox3RsrMLEociMJTBbF59Kf83IR%2BPFXIc%3D&reserved=0> in 2007-8 over the controversial nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC).
Suppose President Trump decides not to follow this convention (and given the fact that he hasn’t followed other conventions, this would be unsurprising) He could appoint a libertarian or independent to Ravel’s position, thereby not violating the rules about having more than three Republican appointees. Thanks to Senator Reid, there is no more filibuster of executive nominations in the Senate, so Republicans in the Senate can force this choice through. The result? Four commissioners who can now do rulemaking, advisory opinions, and take positions in litigation that will make the FEC the leader in deregulating the political process.
This would be extremely attractive to Don McGahn, who has the President’s ear, and essentially declared war on Democrats at the FEC. The only question is if Republicans in the Senate think they would pay a price from Democrats by going down this route.
Think things can’t get much worse at the FEC from the reform perspective? Think again.
<image001.png><https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.addtoany.com%2Fshare%23url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Felectionlawblog.org%252F%253Fp%253D91191%26title%3DRather%2520Than%2520Continued%2520Stalemate%252C%2520Federal%2520Election%2520Commission%2520May%2520Now%2520Lead%2520Way%2520to%2520Campaign%2520Finance%2520Deregulation&data=02%7C01%7Cpryan%40commoncause.org%7C7c584a0908e34f481f1a08d458eca59a%7Cdb39e4b4de324cf9b66e9d02d8172178%7C0%7C0%7C636231220804780653&sdata=GRPYAfJcTrodlYGr9mNBP8Kf8%2BOjTHcpfZ0JnVxsoWw%3D&reserved=0>
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--
Rick Hasen
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UC Irvine School of Law
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