SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-06-26
The Federal Election Commission is losing its short-lived quorum after Caroline Hunter, a longtime Republican commissioner of the FEC and former chair of the agency, is resigning, according to a resignation letter obtained by POLITICO. Her departure from the agency means that the FEC will be unable to make major enforcement actions.
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Hunter said she is joining the legal team of the Koch-funded group Stand Together, a nonprofit that works on criminal justice reform, education, poverty and addiction issues.
Shortly after Hunter announced her resignation, the White House said that it would nominate Allen Dickerson as a new FEC commissioner. Dickerson is currently Legal Director at the Institute for Free Speech, which broadly takes an anti-regulatory approach to campaign finance.
"It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the FEC. I am grateful for the president's confidence, and hope to have the opportunity to serve the American people in this important role," Dickerson said in a statement circulated by the Institute for Free Speech. Bradley A. Smith, the founder of the Institute for Free Speech and a former Republican chair of the FEC, praised Dickerson's nomination's and called him a "a lawyer's lawyer" in a statement.
See also [2020-06-30]: With FEC again defanged, Trump's latest nominee likely to face opposition.
The Federal Election Commission is once again lacking the four commissioners it needs to enforce campaign finance laws and close loopholes as Election Day nears.
Republican commissioner Caroline Hunter announced last week she will resign from the FEC to work for Stand Together, a philanthropic network bankrolled by Republican megadonor Charles Koch and other like-minded conservatives. Her departure will leave the FEC with three commissioners out of a possible six. The FEC needs four members to hold meetings to consider issues such as "dark money" and foreign interference.
The FEC was unable to meet for roughly 10 months until June 5 2020, when Trump's Republican nominee Trey Trainor was sworn in as the fourth commissioner. Trainor, who defended dark money as a Republican lawyer in Texas, was confirmed by the Senate along party lines amid opposition from some pro-transparency groups.
Trump's FEC nominee to replace Hunter will likely draw even stronger opposition. The White House announced last week Trump will nominate Allen Dickerson, legal director at the Institute for Free Speech, to be the FEC's fourth commissioner.
Allen Dickerson cheered the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision that unleashed nearly $1 billion in dark money into federal elections over the last decade, arguing that the ruling greatly expanded Americans' freedom to speak on political issues. Since then, Dickerson has led the Institute for Free Speech's legal challenges against laws and regulations that would force politically active nonprofits to disclose their donors.
Formerly the Center for Competitive Politics, the Institute for Free Speech opposed the DISCLOSE Act, Democrats' attempt to crack down on dark money spending following the Supreme Court's landmark ruling. Dickerson argued that the bill chilled free speech rights of nonprofits to advocate on political issues. Senate Republicans successfully blocked the legislation.
Dickerson supported reversing a district court decision that unsuccessfully attempted to reveal donors to dark money groups. He led a lawsuit against California over its law that required nonprofits to disclose names of donors to the state. He also supported a lawsuit that challenged the legality of Alaska's relatively low contribution limits.
"The White House could not have found a more qualified nominee than Allen Dickerson. He will bring years of experience, expertise, and a strong commitment to the rule of law to the Commission," Institute for Free Speech Chairman and former FEC Chair Bradley Smith said in a statement. "He is a lawyer's lawyer and his temperament is ideally suited for this position."
In the post-Citizens United era, the FEC's Republican commissioners have echoed Dickerson in their arguments to justify not cracking down on undisclosed election spending by nonprofits that are not supposed to focus on politics. Republican commissioners dismissed a complaint against a nonprofit that spent nearly its entire budget on political ads during the 2014 North Carolina Senate election.
Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a cross-partisan organization that advocates for democracy reform, said in a statement to OpenSecrets it's "troubling" that Dickerson is "likely to bring a minimalist approach to transparency to the job" should he be confirmed by the Senate. She argued his organization does not follow the principle that campaign finance laws are meant to limit corruption or the appearance of corruption.
"It's alarming that Dickerson could follow in the footsteps of some of his recent predecessors who deemed laws they disagreed with as not worthy of enforcement," McGehee said. "That's unacceptable and should concern senators of both parties."
The Institute for Free Speech (IFS), formerly called the Center for Competitive Politics, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. IFS' mission is to "promote and defend the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government through strategic litigation, communication, activism, training, research, and education."
The Center for Competitive Politics was founded in 2005 by former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith. Smith opened the organization with the goal of "challenging the current campaign finance system in both federal court and the court of public opinion." In October 2017, the organization changed its name to the Institute for Free Speech.
The organization has been particularly active in criticizing campaign finance regulations, taxpayer-financed political campaigns, and restrictions on referenda and ballot initiatives. The organization publishes various studies and reports on election related matters, and provides pro bono legal counsel to parties in suits challenging the constitutionality of election statutes. It has also defended the right of independent groups to participate freely in the electoral process.
The organization represented the plaintiffs in SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission, the Court of Appeals decision that authorized the creation of Super PACs.
In 2014, the organization challenged California's requirement that nonprofit groups must turn over their donor lists to the state in order to receive a license to solicit contributions from residents of the state.
The organization has stated its opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment, authored by U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Michael Bennet, that would give Congress more power to regulate political spending. The organization has also opposed proposed Internal Revenue Service guidelines that would redefine tax rules for social welfare organizations that engage in political advocacy as a secondary activity.
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