Posted December 20, 2007 by J. Gerald Hebert

FEC Impasse Continues

Yesterday, the Senate left town without voting on the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission.  With the Senate set to adjourn the first session of the 110^th Congress, Hans von Spakovsky’s recess appointment to the FEC will expire.  

This outcome is good for our country, because a person who has shown a disdain for campaign finance laws does not belong on a Commission charged with a duty to interpret and enforce those laws.  Moreover, von Spakovsky’s compiled a shameful record of defending vote suppression efforts and was a central player in the politicization of the Justice Department during his tenure there. The FEC needs people who bring some degree of evenhandedness to their decisionmaking.   

Of course, von Spakovsky’s nomination remains pending and that’s a bad thing.  We are grateful especially to Senators Russ Feingold and Barrack Obama for taking the lead in opposing this nomination from the outset.  We also are thankful to Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator John Kerry, Senator Jack Reed and Senator Chris Dodd.  As the session was drawing to a close, each of them stood steadfast in their opposition to von Spakovsky’s nomination for exactly the right reason:  he is unworthy of confirmation.  President Bush should see the writing on the wall and withdraw the nomination.  The President should replace von Spakovsky with an acceptable Republican nominee (there are many who are qualified and do not suffer from the same disabilities as von Spakovsky). 

Of course, von Spakovsky could also see the writing on the wall and withdraw as a nominee, and he would do this if he truly cared about the FEC.  He knows, after all, that his record has undermined his nomination and caused a deadlock that will reduce the agency to two commissioners when it requires four votes to act.  Since von Spakovsky is an FEC Commissioner, he should be keenly aware of deadlocks.  Why would he continue to press ahead in the face of opposition from a majority of the Senate.  (Since Senator McConnell rejected Senator Reid’s offer to have a vote on von Spakovsky, Senator McConnell must not have the votes to confirm him).

Some critics are blaming the impasse over FEC confirmation votes on the “reform community,” claiming that organizations like the Campaign Legal Center are perfectly happy to see the Commission lapse into a quorumless coma.  Today Bob Bauer blogged on this subject but gets it wrong.  Bob incorrectly speculates that the “reform community” has been quiet about the potential inoperability of the FEC in the New Year because reformers believe “that the FEC, as currently constituted, is not worth the bother” of protesting the Senate’s inability to reach a compromise on FEC nominees that would keep the Commission functioning. 

Although the Campaign Legal Center has long supported legislation that would restructure the FEC, the Legal Center definitely thinks the currently-structured FEC is better than no FEC.  Contrary to Bob’s assertion, the Legal Center has no “common cause with Mitch McConnell” in this matter.  Instead, the Legal Center has common cause with Bob’s client, Sen. Obama, who for admirably principled reasons has blocked the confirmation of von Spakovsky to the FEC.  The Legal Center doesn’t want to see the FEC shut down.  Instead, it wants to see the President replace von Spakovsky with a nominee lacking such a despicable track record of voting rights suppression.  It’s that simple and our opposition on this point has been consistent from the outset.  And on this matter I’ve been far from quiet.

It is not the reform community or the Democrats in the Senate who have the FEC perched at the edge of going out of business.  It is President Bush and Senator McConnell who are clearly responsible for the FEC’s predicament.  I would point out to the President that it is not too late to be a uniter, not a divider, even at this stage in his presidency.  It is time to withdraw the nomination of von Spakovsky to the FEC and let the agency charged with enforcing our nation’s election laws get about the business of doing just that.