John McCain's FEC Problem

Posted by Sir Charles of DC, Cogitamus at 2:53 PM on April 23, 2008.

There is an interesting little drama unfolding involving the Bush Administration, Congress, and the Federal Election Commission that may have a significant impact on the McCain campaign and its ability to receive federal funds for the election.

The FEC is the administrative body charged with overseeing the nation's federal election laws.  It is run by a bipartisan commission with six members.  No more than three members of the FEC can belong to one party.

At the moment only two of those six seats are presently filled because of a battle over Bush nominee, Hans von Spakovsky.  Mr. von Spakovsky was a Justice Department official who was engaged in voter suppression efforts for the Republican Party -- a rather interesting qualification for an FEC member.  He served on the Commission as a recess appointment along with two Democratic appointees, former Chairman Robert Lenhard and member Steven Walther.  The Senate has remained continuously in session since the end of 2007 in order to prevent Bush from making further recess appointments to the FEC.  The Senate Democrats are insisting that von Spakovsky face an individual up or down vote rather than be paired with a Democratic nominee. The Bush Administration insists that it will not withdraw von Spakovsky's nomination.

As a result, the Commission lacks a quorum, rendering it unable to rule on whether McCain could withdraw from public financing and, more importantly, a quorumless FEC may be unable to authorize the release of $84 million in public funds now that McCain appears to have opted back into public financing.

After several months of this deadlock, Chairman Lenhard has announced his withdrawal from further consideration for renomination.  This almost certainly means further delay in achieving a quorum.

Given the stakes at issue, why won't the Bush Administration back down?  Well, you might say -- because they never back down on anything.  And you would be right to some extent.  However, I am told by reliable sources that the real driving force at this point is not the Administration, but rather Senator Mitch McConnell.  McConnell despises the FEC and John McCain -- he was the leading opponent of McCain Feingold in the Senate, and views the law as an almost personal affront.  Essentially he wants McCain to have to come to him on bended knee before he will consent to putting any nominee other than von Spakovsky up for consideration.

Evidently the Democratic leadership in the Senate has been consulting with the Obama campaign to get a sense of its position on these issues.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the Obama people have been unwilling to play hardball and have strongly indicated that they do not want to gum up the gears of the public financing for McCain, even if might be to their advantage to do so.

So for now, it is McConnell who stands between McCain and his $84 million payday.  It will be intriguing to see who blinks first in this little internecine war.   

Tagged as: election, republicans

Sir Charles of DC blogs at Cogitamus.