The Democratic Party: systematically working to destroy America for decades. And here is just the next chapter in their book of autocratic oppression.
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Robert Gehl reports that Democrats are plotting to take over the Federal Election Commission to target conservatives, legal experts warn.
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One Democratic commissioner is well on her way to turning the bi-partisan group into a tool for liberal witch-hunts, analysts say.
“They want to take it back to the days when they loved it, when the GOP commissioners were essentially docile and at least one could always be counted on to vote with the Democratic commissioners to give the Democrats whatever they wanted, and when the agency employed people like [former IRS nonprofit head] Lois Lerner,” Cleta Mitchell, a Republican attorney who specializes in campaign finance law, told the Washington Examiner on Monday.
Various proposals from Senate Democrats amount to fundamentally transforming the agency. Back in March, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) proposed legislation that would terminate the agency, replacing it with a partisan version – one he claimed would be “less divided.”
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“Gridlock leaves the agency powerless to enforce the few campaign finance laws remaining on the books,” Udall said. “We need a new agency empowered to ensure our elections are fair and democratic.”
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is made up of three Republicans and three Democrats and is notorious for its partisan bickering – accomplishing little to nothing most years.
Democrat Ann Ravel is the FEC member trying to fundamentally transform the commission from the inside. She was chairwoman last year and spent much of her time fiercely criticizing her Republican members.
Ravel’s frustration culminated with a call in January for the other commissioners to quit, arguing it was “absurd” to say “the FEC was intended to stalemate.”
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Conservatives charge Ravel is politicizing the agency. White House visitor logs made public last month revealed that Ravel visited the White House at nearly the same time, first on Jan. 20 and again on Jan. 28. Consequently, critics are worried about the role Ravel seems to play in proposals to renovate the commission.
Ravel, who formerly led California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, a state-level equivalent to the FEC, has been especially vocal in her frustration on two topics. One is the commission’s refusal to hit GOP groups with penalties for alleged enforcement violations.
The second is the question of whether the agency’s regulatory authority should be expanded to cover content on the Web. The agency has deadlocked several times over the last year on questions of whether to expand its regulatory power to websites like the Drudge Report and Twitter.
A former FEC commissioner under President Bush said Ravel is attempting a power grab.
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“It would allow one political party to impose interpretations of the law and regulations that only benefit one side of the political aisle or that violate constitutional rights — like Commissioner Ravel’s heedless desire to override fundamental First Amendment rights by restricting political speech on the Internet,” said Hans von Spakovsky.
“The FPPC rides roughshod over and tramples the First Amendment rights of citizens on a regular basis,” Cleta Mitchell, a Republican attorney who specializes in campaign finance law, told the Washington Examiner.
She said that adding that the proposed changes would allow the FEC to act as “a tyrannical, overreaching agency that ignores the First Amendment rights of the American people.”
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Given significant Republican majorities in both chambers, the prospect of Democrats passing major changes through Congress this year is dim. However, the move indicates a divide between the parties that is increasingly vast on the issue of campaign finance law, and the battle to come should Democrats gain more influence.
“Requiring four of the six commissioners to approve any action, which is the current law, including investigations and the imposition of civil penalties, ensures that both parties agree that a violation of the law has occurred or that the correct policy is being implemented,” Spakovsky said. “This guarantees that the FEC is not used as political tool and that it acts to enforce the law against violators regardless of their party affiliation.
“I cannot think of a more dangerous, reckless, and downright irresponsible move than to take the FEC down from six commissioners to five,” he added. “It is an imprudent and ill-advised proposal.”
