|
Determined to rally opposition to one controversial appointee to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), several watchdog groups are calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to hold separate votes on each of four agency nominees. The groups include the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG. Several Democratic senators and watchdog groups have opposed Hans von Spakovsky’s nomination. The criticism intensified earlier this year during Democrats’ investigation into the 2006 firings of U.S. attorneys and whether the Justice Department has been improperly politicized during President Bush’s tenure. “As you know, the pending FEC appointments include a controversial nomination,” the groups wrote Reid. “It appears that efforts are being made to bypass the normal process used to confirm Presidential appointments in order to ensure this controversial nominee’s confirmation by packaging him with the other FEC nominees to have just one vote on all four of the nominees together, thereby evading a specific vote on the controversial nominee.” Von Spakovsky was installed on the FEC as a recess appointment in early January 2006, but the Senate has yet to confirm him. Last week the Senate Rules Committee advanced all four FEC nominations to the full Senate floor without recommendations, an unusual maneuver aimed at accommodating Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) opposition to him. At the time, Republicans argued that Feinstein, who chairs the panel, would be breaking precedent if she held a separate committee vote on each of the nominees. The watchdog groups, however, point to a decision by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) in 2000 to hold a separate vote for controversial FEC nominee Bradley Smith, who was reported out of the Rules Committee along with nominee Danny McDonald. Smith was eventually confirmed by a vote of 64-35. The groups urged Reid to prevent a “manipulative, undemocratic and unfair process” by scheduling a separate vote on each nominee. Sean Parnell, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, a group that advocates less campaign finance regulation and supports von Spakovky’s nomination, said he should receive the same treatment before the Senate as any of the other nominees. “He has consistently enforced the law during the 21 months he has already served on the FEC,” Parnell said. “This effort is nothing more than advocates of so-called ‘campaign finance reform’ using campaign finance laws for partisan and ideological gain.” Reid spokesman Jim Manley declined to comment on Reid’s response to the letter. |
