The chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, the government’s agency charged with investigating campaign finance violations, publicly admitted last month that her agency is “worse than dysfunctional.” But on Monday, she decided to do something about it.
FEC Chairwoman Ann Ravel and Commissioner Ellen Weintraub told USA Today they are filing a formal petition to urge their own agency to write rules to crack down on the growing amount of money being spent on U.S. elections, including spending from groups that keep their donors’ identities secret. Ravel told the newspaper that their petition is the first filed by a sitting commissioner against the agency in its 40-year history.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Weintraub told USA Today. “The normal routes are not working, so we are willing to take unusual paths to fight the inaction.”
The Democratic commissioners’ petition asks the FEC to require more disclosure of money flowing through outside groups, prohibit federal candidates from appearing at fundraisers organized by their super PACs and ban candidates from using outside groups as arms of their campaign, among other actions.
After a FEC petition is filed, the public is given a chance to comment on the proposals. While new regulations aren’t likely to stem from the petition itself, Ravel said “the public will have an opportunity to raise their concerns about the campaign-finance system and disclosure” as a result of the issues being raised.
A poll released last week found that a majority of Americans of both parties support measures to restrict the influence of wealthy donors in politics. Even though Republican politicians have been the most involved in opposing regulations, the poll showed that a majority of Republicans favor a sweeping overhaul of how political campaigns raise money. But respondents also shared the FEC commissioners’ pessimism about the current free-for-all campaign finance situation — more than half said they were pessimistic that the rules would be improved.
A number of likely presidential candidates have already been accused of violating campaign finance law, but the FEC currently has little ability to take action. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has yet to officially announce his campaign but that has not stopped him from appearing at dozens of fundraisers for his Right to Rise super PAC. In March, the Campaign Legal Center accused then-likely presidential candidates Bush, Martin O’Malley, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker of skirting federal campaign finance laws by soliciting unlimited money for their campaigns before formally launching them.
Presidential candidates on the left, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have called for a constitutional amendment to limit the impact of undisclosed, unregulated money in politics. And even some Republicans who are less likely to be bankrolled by billionaires have spoken out against the exorbitant amount of money that will be spent in the upcoming election. But legislation to accomplish this has repeatedly been blocked by Republicans in Congress.