By Alexander Bolton
December 11, 2007
Leading Senate Democrats, including Barack Obama (Ill.) and John Kerry (Mass.), say they will not allow a slate of nominees to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) through the Senate in the days before congressional adjournment, threatening to freeze during a presidential election year the agency tasked with policing campaigns.
If the Senate does not confirm the four-person slate in the next several days, the recess appointments of three commissioners will expire at the end of the year, leaving only two members on the commission in 2008.
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Obama and Kerry, as well as Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), have placed holds on the slate because one of the nominees, Hans von Spakovsky, a GOP appointee, has come under fire because of his record while at the voting section of the Department of Justice.
“Based on his record at the FEC and at the Department of Justice before that, Hans von Spakovsky does not deserve Senate confirmation,” said Feingold in a statement Monday. “It is unfortunate that President Bush and Republican Senate leaders are playing chicken with this important agency with the ’08 campaign in full swing. The president should nominate someone who has the respect and support of senators on both sides of the aisle. It is up to him whether the FEC will have enough commissioners to function next year.”
moreNo Quorum on Election Board As Nominees Stall in Congress
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 22, 2007; Page A01
The FEC is composed of three appointees from each party, all nominated by the president. There is already one vacancy, and three recess appointments will expire on Dec. 31.
The potential for an FEC shutdown has been looming for weeks, as a handful of Democratic senators voiced opposition to one of Bush's nominees to the commission, Hans A. von Spakovsky. Their concern stemmed not from von Spakovsky's work on the FEC but from his tenure in the Justice Department's civil rights division.
His critics contend that von Spakovsky advocated a controversial Texas redistricting plan and fought to institute a requirement in Georgia that voters show photo identification before being permitted to cast ballots.
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The blockade worked, but Republican leaders in the Senate countered with one of their own. If von Spakovsky were rejected, they would not allow the two Democratic nominees to be appointed, either.
moreThe most objectionable nominee is Hans von Spakovsky, a former Republican county chairman in Georgia and a political appointee at the Justice Department. He is reported to have been involved in the maneuvering to overrule the career specialists at Justice who warned that the Texas gerrymandering orchestrated by Representative Tom DeLay violated minority voting rights. Senators need the opportunity to delve into that, as well as reports of Mr. von Spakovsky’s involvement in such voting rights abuses as the purging of voter rolls in Florida in the 2000 elections.
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Hans von Spakovsky:
A ‘doozy’ of a campaign-finance violation
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