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March 15, 2011

CREW Calls on President Obama to Appoint New FEC Commissioners

By crewstaff

Federal Agencies, Federal Election Commission (FEC), Organizations, Public Citizen, President Barack Obama

Today CREW joined other good governance groups calling on President Obama to appoint new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). As we noted last Friday in our blog post commending the New York Times for doing the same, by April 30^th of this year only one legitimately serving commissioner will remain.

Failure by the president to appoint new commissioners would constitute a serious breakdown in leadership. President Obama rightly has offered harsh criticism of the disastrous Citizens United decision, yet at the same time, his administration has stood by idly as the one agency tasked with enforcing the nation’s election laws continues its completely dysfunctional course.

The president has the ability to nominate five people to be FEC commissioners. If his selections are dedicated to enforcing the law and standing up for the integrity of our elections, the stranglehold by the current crop of commissioners can be broken. As our letter states, any efforts “to remake the FEC and restore the integrity of our campaign finance laws cannot begin until [the President] nominate new Commissioners.”

CREW was joined in this letter, which you can read here, by Americans for Campaign Reform, Democracy 21, Campaign Legal Center, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.

Letter From Reform Groups to President Obama on FEC Commissioners 03_15_11