The Federal Election Commission, an independent agency that enforces all campaign finance law and ensures the integrity of political campaigns, lost its vice chairman Monday evening, essentially rendering the agency useless. In order to take any official enforcement or regulatory action, the agency is required to have a quorum of four members on its board, but the resignation of Matthew Petersen, effective this week, leaves the commission with only three members, all of whom are still working even though their six-year terms of service have all expired. There were already three vacancies before this week's kerfuffle. The FEC issued about $33.6 million in fines between 1999 and 2008, but over the last 10 years that dropped to $11.4 million. Yet, election security has become an increasingly important issue. Just last month, former special counsel Robert Mueller ominously warned Congress that Russia had lofty plans to interfere in the next election. "They're doing it as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign," he said. "Without a functioning election watchdog, the vulnerabilities in U.S. elections that were exposed in 2016 by Russia will be exploited to greater effect by foreign and domestic actors in the 2020 election and beyond," Trevor Potter, former FEC chairman and president of the Campaign Legal Center, said in an emailed statement. "Russia exploited a weak FEC to covertly meddle in U.S. elections through digital ads and the FEC has a pending [rule] to tighten disclosure requirements. If President Trump and the U.S. Senate commit to restoring the FEC, we could properly police foreign interference in elections." The FEC was created in 1974 and was intended to be a bipartisan group with no more than three Republican or Democratic candidates. But in recent years the agency has been mired in partisan deadlock. Typically, the president appoints, and the Senate confirms, each of the six members to serve for one term, with one person up for replacement every two years. But once the term is over, they're able to stay put on the commission if no one appoints a successor. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not approved a new member since he took up his post in 2015. President Donald Trump has nominated only one person to serve on the commission since taking office in 2017, Texas lawyer Trey Trainor, but it's been two years and Congress has yet to confirm his nomination. Now, the FEC cannot conduct meetings, issue fines, conduct audits or make rules. Or, really, function as a commission. https://www.newsweek.com/federal-election-commission-russia-interference-2020-1456386
The Republican Party figured out years ago that Democracy just wasn’t part of the plan anymore. The power and the money are the gods they serve. If you vote for a Republican, you are now openly supporting the move to autocracy. The shtick is up. 40% of the country does not want a Democracy anymore because they are drunk on the power they think they still have. Truth is they are fools and have no power.
At any other time in modern American history, this would be a huge story. Today, with trump seeming to devour the news coverage like that hole in Return of the Jedi devoured bounty hunter Boba Fett? It will go relatively unnoticed until it is too late for the FEC to do anything to prevent shenanigans during the 2020 election. That’s exactly what trump, Moscow Mitch McConnell, and today’s GOP apparently want. That’s what the ignorant fools sucked into trump’s orbit are allowing to happen, and it makes them complicit.
First ... not really even sure who those people are anymore. I know they exist, but who specifically does that apply to anymore especially after 2018? Second... not sure Id agree with that assuming it is the case. Yes, they’d want the ability to take dark money and flow money under the table, but under a truly autocratic system of govt, their own power to grift would be essentially eliminated by the Republicans who would ultimately seize that for the supreme leader. Being part of the opposition party means they have a huge target on their back to possibly even get put in jail if they want to remain in government under the opposition party. If you know you won’t be on the winning team, why would you want that system? The only reason why Trumpers want to move in that direction is they think it benefits them. That’s the point. They are stupid and blinded by the power they think they have to wield a president they think serves them. So why not just make him a King and get everything they want?
McConnell has never approved of the FEC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McConnell_v._FEC In 2003, he was against the BCRA and took a case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to stop passage. Guessing this is his way of taking matters into his own hands.
Because Mitch works for the GOP not the USA. He has done a great job for them, He controls the supreme court. If I had to rate his job performance its an A+. Under his leadership the republicans have got everything they have wanted. Less taxes. Less government regulation. They control the supreme court. They pretty much control the government despite having fewer overall votes.
It's an easy win for Republicans to do nothing on this. Election integrity is not something their voters particularly care about so whatever stance they take on this they aren't gonna lose any of their base, any interference will likely help Republicans so they will welcome it, and if Democrats do happen to win big in 2020 then it makes it much easier for them to blame it on Democrats "cheating" which will help give them an argument to galvanize voters in 2022 and 2024.
Because he is dealing with this reality. Parties change over time quite a bit, but for now he and his party is losing ground on the demographics game and he doesn't want to deal with it.
Still no quorum? Sigh... As Campaigns Move Online, America’s Chief Watchdog Isn’t Following "The agency is largely bound by law last updated in 2002, back when targeted cable ads were still the cutting edge of political advertising. The last time the FEC updated its rules to address online advertising was in 2006, before Facebook had opened to the general public. More recently it has been paralyzed by an internal argument about whether its mandate should, or shouldn’t, extend further into online campaigning. At the moment, the FEC is unable to update its rules even if it wanted to: Since Republican commissioner Matthew Petersen resigned in August, it has only had three of its six seats filled – one short of the quorum required to revise its rules or even to issue official advice for companies, campaigns and consultants looking for guidance on what’s allowed." https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/23/campaigns-move-online-fec-watchdog-141887
