Friday, February 22, 2008 6:16 AM
Law Professor Rick Hasen, writing at Election Law Blog, posted an interesting piece yesterday (Sen. McCain in Legal and Political Pickle Over FEC Letter) concerning a decision from the Federal Election Commission "barring [Senator John] McCain, at least temporarily, from withdrawing from the presidential public financing system for the primary season..."
Mr. Hasen starts by laying out some history:
Here's the relevant background: Federal law establishes voluntary presidential public financing system, which provides matching funds for participating candidates in the primary period (matching the first $250 donated per contributor) provided the candidate accepts spending limits. There's both a national spending limit of around $54 million through the time of the candidate's nomination during the summer convention and more easily-circumvented state-by state limits. In the general election, participating major party candidates receive a flat grant (expected to be about $85 million in the 2008 election) provided they agree to raise no funds (except up to $20 million for administrative and legal expenses) for themselves in the general election.
He then continues by discussing how decisions made by Senator McCain (and other Presidential candidates) have led to the current state of affairs, while providing some of the politics also at work.
Today the chairman of the FEC, David Mason, sent a letter to McCain telling McCain that he can't withdraw from the public financing system for the primary until the FEC has enough members to constitute a quorum. The FEC is without a quorum because of a fight between Senate Democrats (led by Obama and Sen. Feingold) and Republicans over President Bush's nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC. Von Spakovsky, as I've explained in Slate, was one of the administration's "voter fraud warriors" responsible for, among other things, approving Texas's controversial mid-decade redistricting and Georgia's photo identification law for voting. In retaliation for Obama and Feingold's hold on von Spakovsky's nomination, the Republican leadership put three other nominations on hold. Now the FEC does not have enough members to engage in certain actions, such as granting McCain the right to withdraw from the campaign finance system.
Finally, Mr. Hasen concludes:
What got both Obama and McCain into these problems in the first place is that the public financing system needs updating. The spending limits need to be increased, along with the matching funds. But, as Mark Schmitt has pointed out, McCain voted against maintaining the current system, and for all of his reform credentials he has done nothing to update it to the 21st century. Maybe McCain has no one to blame but himself.
If you find the subject of interest, you can read the above snippets in context here: Sen. McCain in Legal and Political Pickle Over FEC Letter