The James Madison Center for Free Speech condemns Democracy 21's recommendation that the FEC be reformed as an agency under the supervision of a single administrator.

Earlier today, Democracy 21 released a report claiming that the FEC was designed to be, and is, ineffective as the enforcer of federal campaign finance laws.  One of the reasons for its ineffectiveness, so it is claimed, is that the six commissioners are divided equally between the parties and are "chosen on the basis of their political allegiances rather than their qualifications."  Thus, its first recommendation for "reform" is to abolish the FEC and create a new enforcement agency headed by a single administrator.

"The person filing the position of administrator of the new 'FEC' would then become the most important person in America because he would be the person in charge of regulating the political speech of every U.S. citizen.  This, coupled with the sweeping changes the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) has made to campaign finance law, would give this individual the power to rig the system for partisan results," countered James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for the James Madison Center.

Democracy 21, however, believes that such concerns are "mitigated by two principal factors."  "First, the president's nominee for the post would have to be confirmed by the Senate" requiring "bipartisan support."  Second, since their proposal also calls for cases to be "considered and adjudicated by impartial administrative law judges," those judges "would help ensure that the agency's actions were . . . not taken as the result of partisan motives."

Still, these factors would not prevent the sole administrator from abusing his power.  "As we've seen with the judicial nominating process, the nomination process itself is a political battle ground.  Only those with political connections would be nominated for the position and those political connections would insert bias.  Thus, the current structure of three representatives from each party is necessary to ensure that all decisions to pursue alleged violations are bipartisan," stated Bopp.

"Although the report condemns the FEC for not adopting the standards it advocates," added Bopp, "it is important to note that for the last 20 years, the FEC, at the urging of these same people, has attempted to adopt many of these standards which would prevent issue advocacy by citizen groups only to be defeated in the Courts because of their unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment rights of the citizens of the United States."

The James Madison Center supports litigation and public education activities in order to defend the rights of political expression and association by citizens and citizen groups as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

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