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Enforcement
The Devil We Know? Evaluating the FEC as Enforcer
Michael M. Franz
September 2009
Category: Enforcement
Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy, Vol.: 8, Issue 3
The Federal Election Commission administers and enforces federal election laws. But campaign finance reformers have argued for years that the FEC does little to stem the exploitation of "loopholes" in election law. This article evaluates the enforcement actions of the regulatory body by exploiting a unique database of legal complaints moderated by the FEC since 1996. The author has coded over 700 complaints on a variety of dimensions, including the issue focus, the characteristics of the complainant and respondent, and the final penalty levied by the Commission. Among the patterns he finds are that regulatory votes are rarely split along partisan lines and that Commissioners levy (some quite substantial) fines in about 30 percent of all enforcement cases. The major theoretical question of this paper is whether the FEC punishes potential violators of election law in a partisan manner, whether they are biased toward candidates, and whether certain structural changes at the FEC influence performance. The evidence suggests an FEC (increasingly) more functional than many often claim, with no slam-dunk patterns suggestive of large-scale bias.
Deadlocked Votes Among Members of the Federal Election Commission: Overview and Potential Considerations for Congress
R. Sam Garrett
August 2009
Category: Enforcement
Congressional Research Service
This research examines the structure of the Federal Election Commission in light of criticism that the agency is often unable to achieve its mission because of deadlocked votes, in which matters of law of regulation may be left unresolved. This report asks whether deadlocks are as common as popular wisdom suggests and whether deadlocks fall along party lines. It concludes that although deadlocked votes do occur, they represent a minority of the agency's votes during the period covered under the study. The study also notes that the issues on which deadlocks occurred often features staunch disagreement among Commissioners and reflected unsettled positions on some major policy questions.
Overview of New York Proposal to Regulate Campaign Finance
Category: Contributions & Limits, Enforcement, Lobbying
The following is a CCP analysis of the effort in New York to overhaul their campaign finance regulations.
