If there is anything to be said about campaign finance after the 2010 mid-term election, it’s that big money really does win and the need for reform is greater than ever.
The Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC back in January 2010 made it possible for corporations and unions to make enormous independent expenditures on elections through front groups. Likewise, the number of political players has skyrocketed while the percentage of donor disclosures by organizations has plummeted. To say that the system is flawed would be an understatement.
The federal agency that is charged with monitoring and implementing campaign and election legislation is the Federal Election Commission. The Court held that the disclosure requirements of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) were justified by a “governmental interest” for the accessibility and availability of the electorate to information relevant to election expenditure funds (OYEZ, case 558 U.S. 2010). The FEC uses a variety of methods to detect violations of election laws including, but not limited to, revision of committee reports, Commission audits, and a complaint process that allows individuals and other government agencies to report possible violations (FEC, 2010).Nonetheless, there are indeed management and enforcement flaws within the organization that inhibit effective implementation of federal campaign finance laws. Specifically, there is an apparent lack of enforcement of disclosure requirements. An FEC enforcement case or Matter Under Review, by law, must remain confidential until they are closed (FEC, 2010). By the time the FEC has assessed and revised the disclosure file submissions, election season has long ended and any violations are moot. Moreover, the consequence for violations involving late submission of FEC reports or failure to file reports is an administrative fine that poses little threat to culprits (Best, 2009).
In grading the FEC on its implementation and enforcement I give the commission an F and legislators receive a 0 for whatever efforts were made to reform the campaign finance laws.
Check out these links to find out who’s taking advantage of the Citizens United ruling and who is, or isn’t, doing something about it.
I'm wondering what specific cases of this midterm election were most seriously effected by lack of enforcement by the FEC. I'd imagine this combination of lack of campaign finance reforms in action and Democratic voter apathy played a significant role in allowing Republicans to take back the House.
ReplyDelete