Ann Ravel, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission who resigned earlier this month, has given President Donald Trump a golden opportunity to prove he meant what he said on the campaign trail about the corrosive influence of big-money donors on elections.
Trump jumped the field in the Republican primaries by mocking his opponents’ reliance on big-money donors. He boasted that he could fund his own campaign (though in the end, he didn’t). He called super PACs — independent political actions committees that can raise unlimited amounts of money as long as they don’t coordinate with official candidate committees — a “scam.” He said his opponents were “puppets” of “special interests, the lobbyists, and the donors.”
The message resonated with his supporters. Now, unless Trump was just blowing smoke, he can and should start to change that.
The FEC was created in the post-Watergate reform era to enforce the nation’s ever-changing campaign finance laws. By law, it must have three Republican members and three Democratic members. The intention was to make sure it enforced the laws without favoring either party. The effect, however, has been a kind of permanent paralysis.
Indeed, inside Washington, the FEC has become a kind of joke, with critics saying the “F” stands for “feckless.” Ravel wrote a critical report on her way out the door, lamenting that FEC could stand for “Failure to Enforce Commission.”
A bloc of three commissioners “routinely thwarts, obstructs and delays action on the very campaign finance laws its members were appointed to administer,” Ravel wrote.
Trump can help. Step one, replace Ravel with a Democrat who will take the problem as seriously as Ravel did. Step two, replace one of the three Republicans on the commission with a Republican who is reform-minded. As inadequate as the campaign finance laws are, they should at least be enforced. As it stands, important cases go nowhere because the donor class doesn’t want them to. Consider:
A complaint was filed against Ohio coal mine operator Robert E. Murray in 2012 for imposing a 1 percent “lug” on his employees’ wages to help fund GOP campaigns. The FEC’s general counsel recommended that Murray be sanctioned. The commission deadlocked 3-3.
The FEC consistently has failed to enforce prohibitions against 501(c)(4) “social welfare” corporations spending the majority of their anonymously contributed money on political causes.
The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case — correctly seen as opening the door for huge corporate donations — nonetheless envisioned fully transparent donations. Instead, since that decision, more than $800 million has been donated anonymously and the FEC hasn’t lifted a finger.
Candidate Trump was right: Candidates become puppets of big donors. Average Americans are shut out. Now President Trump has a chance to put up or shut up.
