Ann Ravel and the FEC’s dysfunction

A central tenet of President Trump’s campaign was his promise to “restore law and order” by enforcing the laws of the land. But that’s not likely going to include campaign finance laws, or telling the Federal Election Commission to do its job.

Former Santa Clara County, Calif., counsel Ann Ravel announced last week that she’s resigning from the commission effective today, having concluded that there’s nothing she can do to alter the dysfunction permeating what’s supposed to be a watchdog agency.

To her credit, Ravel isn’t going out quietly.

She published a 25-page document detailing the ineffectiveness of the agency for the past 10 years. Entitled “Dysfunction and Deadlock: The Enforcement Crisis at the Federal Election Commission Reveals the Unlikelihood of Draining the Swamp,” she bluntly writes that a bloc of three Republicans on the commission “routinely thwarts, obstructs and delays action on the very campaign finance laws its members were appointed to administer.”

Their flagrant disregard for federal election law is staggering.

Take the case of Murray Energy Corp. and its CEO, Robert E. Murray. Employees reported that Murray was forcing them to make contributions to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign under the threat of being fired.

Then, they said, the company shut down its mine and forced employees to go to a Romney campaign rally — unpaid — so that Romney could have a big crowd on hand while he attacked President Obama’s “war on coal.”

The three Republicans on the Federal Elections Commission voted to not even investigate the allegations.

The FEC was created in 1974 to improve campaign law enforcement after Watergate and President Nixon’s resignation.

By law, three commissioners from each party are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but in practice each party controls who represents it.

The FEC did its job until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell poisoned the process. He made it clear he wanted the Republicans to put their heads in the sand when potentially illegal political campaigning was reported.

McConnell doesn’t believe individuals or corporations should have limits on their contributions.

Ravel is urging states and cities to pick up the slack and enact more robust campaign finance laws.

She thinks ultimately it will make a difference at the federal level.

“This isn’t a partisan issue, really,” Ravel said. “There are Republican groups active in campaign finance reforms, and that gives me hope it will spread from state to state.”

The alternative, she believes, is an FEC that “destroys the integrity of the commission and furthers the purposeful undermining of government institutions.”

She concluded she can be more effective working outside the process than within.

As sad as that is, all of us, regardless of party affiliation, should hope she’s right.

-San Jose Mercury News