Federalist FEC commish wants GOP victory in November

Hans von Spakovsky, a Georgia lawyer and member of the right-wing Federalist Society, worked with the Voting Integrity Project in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election. Mr. von Spakovsky was one of those guys responsible for the purging of voter rolls to cut down the number of Democrats voting.

In 2002, former Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft hired this Federalist purger of voter rolls, von Spakovsky, to work in the voting rights section of the USDOJ's Civil Rights office - presumably, for his fine work with the Voting Integrity Project that helped Bush/Cheney come to power. While there, he played a key role in the Georgia VoterID battle, where he overruled staff advice to reject the plan.

And in January of this year, George W. Bush made a slew of recess appointments, bypassing the advice and consent of the Senate. One of those appointments was Hans von Spakovsky to Commissioner, Federal Elections Commission.

What's he up to these days at the FEC?

Check this out, as reported by the AP yesterday (hat tip to avahome):

The Federal Election Commission on Thursday began circulating a proposal by Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky that would grant an exemption on airing ads outside a specific timeframe. The commission plans to take up the matter at an Aug. 29 meeting and could vote that day.

If the commission approves the change, it could unleash a flood of election ad spending and open a new legal battle over the 2002 campaign finance law, the overhaul measure for which the Supreme Court has already weighed in.

The FEC commissioner said more than 200 individuals and organizations wrote the panel complaining that the law "stifles their ability to lobby Congress and the executive branch on important issues that they're considering, and I believe that's absolutely correct."

The AP article goes on to give us an inkling as to who is lobbying for the change - the United States Chamber of Commerce:

In 2003, the AFL-CIO, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other interest groups lost a bid to overturn much of the law, including the restrictions. That provision bans interest groups financed with corporate or union money from running television and radio ads the month before a primary and two months before a general election if they identify a federal candidate or target a candidate's district.

And just to give you an idea of where these guys are coming from, I quote Paul Krugman from his column today:

The chamber recently got into trouble because of ads it ran praising Republican members of Congress who, it said, voted for the Medicare prescription drug program. It turned out that one of the congressmen praised in the ads actually voted against the program, while two others weren't even in Congress when the vote took place.

Oops. But the bigger question is, aren't business groups supposed to favor fiscal responsibility and reducing the size of government? So why is the chamber praising a program that substantially increases the size of government and has no visible means of financial support?

The answer is obvious: the Bush administration hopes to win some votes in the midterm elections from older Americans now receiving drug benefits, and the chamber, like many conservative organizations these days, believes that its interests are best served by helping Republicans win elections. If the administration and its allies in Congress want the chamber's support on an issue, they get it, never mind the details.

Hans von Spakovsky's proposed rule change is available for your perusal, here. It is the only item listed so far for the next FEC Commissioners' meeting, August 29th.

There is a huge contact list at the FEC, but I'm not quite certain how we go about protesting this proposed change. But we need to act on this before August 29th to stop a slew of Republican ads in the runup to the November 2006 elections.

Take action.

[A shout out to all of the researchers on the ePluribus Media Investigation site who have helped compile information on Hans von Spakovsky: Aguas de Marco, susie dow, Jill Lehnert, Bekah, and kfred. And one to avahome for the current story.]