The Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) sent a letter today to Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), as well as other Senate leaders, calling on Sens. McCain and Feingold to end the hold they placed on President Obama’s FEC nominee, labor attorney John J. Sullivan.
“This vindictive move by McCain and Feingold is akin to announcing they won’t vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court unless Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are replaced, too,” said CCP Chairman Bradley A. Smith, a former FEC Chairman. “FEC Republicans, including apparent hold target Don McGahn, are faithfully exercising their duties in light of legitimate concerns about their constitutional and statutory authority, not simply bulldozing ahead with burdensome campaign finance regulation despite Supreme Court rulings rolling back portions of McCain-Feingold and the reach of campaign finance restrictions as a whole.”
“This move by Sens. McCain and Feingold is congressional meddling with the independence of the FEC at its worst,” Smith said. “Demanding the President appoint FEC commissioners who will toe your pro-regulatory line despite clear Supreme Court precedent isn’t ‘reform,’ it’s the last gasp in an effort to defend failed government speech controls on Americans’ First Amendment rights.”
McCain and Feingold have signaled they will release their hold only if Obama replaces FEC Commissioners Steven Walther, a Democrat, and Don McGahn, a Republican. The Senators derided the independent agency as “mired in anti-enforcement gridlock” and demanded the President nominate new commissioners “with a demonstrated commitment to the existence and enforcement of the campaign finance laws.
The Supreme Court seems poised to roll back government regulation of political speech even more this fall, as it has ordered a rehearing of Citizens United v. FEC to determine whether the Court should overturn restrictions on corporate speech (in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the electioneering provisions in McCain-Feingold (upheld in McConnell v. FEC).
