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In search of the Federal Election Commission
Contributed by: Larry Collette on 5/12/2008

Of course 2008 is a big election year. Many people in our nation are aware of this. People in Denver will become acutely aware of this come August. Traffic will increase and the lobbyists will hog all the tables at the really good restaurants. Outdoor dining at Wahoos will be impossible.

This whole election thing happens all the time, or in cycles, we go to the polls and the fate of a nation turns on our votes. But the lack of an operating Federal Election Commission somehow continues to go largely unnoticed. Yes, the FEC is missing.

Has anybody noticed that these guys have vanished from view? If the Federal Communication Commission shut it down for even a few days TV and radio would blab all about it. Or if the Federal Trade Commission went on sabbatical, surely somebody might notice and bring it to our attention. Consider when the Consumer Products Safety Commission took that mental "hiatus" and allowed lead soaked toys from China in our playpens. That raised all kinds of hoopla. Why doesn't anybody miss the FEC?

The FEC has not met in full since, well, who knows when? They have been only slightly more active recently than the Interstate Commerce Commission (abolished forever in 1995), that last remaining hallmark of the Grover Cleveland administration. Yet, the FEC is charged by Congress with overseeing provisions of the laws on campaign finance, disclosure, and limits and prohibitions on contributions. And oh yeah, overseeing public funding of Presidential campaigns.

There are currently four of six commission seats open on the FEC with apparently no takers. I suspect that it must be a lot like coaching the New York Knicks. They would have to pay a person a bagzillion dollars to take that gig, and no governmental job of any sort pays that, directly.

You can't have a real commission meeting with just two people that would be entirely too un-governmental and things might actually get done. Though, it would be impossible to break a tie. For official business purposes they need something like four commissioners voting in agreement. Still, this One-Third Commission is stumbling along with two commissioners who are actually serving well past their terms. Not much is happening.

Minutes from the April 17, 2008 FEC meeting indicated they met at 10:00 a.m. They approved the minutes from the last meeting, dealt with a couple matters, and were out of there at 10:10 a.m. I spend more time in the supermarket checkout line. Sure we all aspire to those 10-minute company meetings and would be grateful. But we expect more from our FEC especially in an election year, like catching up with pressing election business. Surely there is some.

These two lonely commissioners, David Mason (R) and Ellen Weintraub (D) spent a portion of those ten minutes considering an inquiry by a househusband/candidate in New York's 20th Congressional district. The man was seeking to use campaign funds to pay himself a salary, and for childcare and vehicle expenses related to his campaign. Their hands tied by the lack of two other concurring opinions, the commissioners could only offer a non-binding draft response saying it was probably a bad idea.

No kidding. I could have told him that, though I admired his openness and integrity. A lesser candidate might have just tried getting away with billing the car payment and the babysitter to his campaign supporters.

Who's minding the election? Aren't primaries, caucuses, fundraising, and campaigning breaking out all over the place? Like since maybe 18 months ago. What does the FEC do anyway?

It's a lot like calling into work sick, knowing that somebody needs to cover your job, but nobody can quite figure out exactly what you do. Finally the boss says "Gee, now that Bob can't show up, let's see what comes to a grinding halt around here." Of course, people have seen Bob wandering the halls for years, he always plays the office football pools, and hangs out in the lunchroom, but what he actually does remains a mystery. All good organizations must have a few Bobs. You just wouldn't expect a federal commission to be so chocked full of them, or maybe not so full of them in this case.



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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Larry Collette

Centennial , CO

Larry Collette has posted 37 stories and 1 comment since joining on 3/27/2006. Larry Collette 's average story rating is 4.9.
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