
CLC’s one-of-a-kind report shines a light on how many of the FEC’s recent decisions have undermined democracy in three major ways:
- Allowing for greater coordination between outside groups funded by wealthy special interests — like super PACs — and candidates’ campaigns.
- Allowing federal candidates to use soft money, which is not subject to federal source or amount restrictions, to finance their election campaigns.
- Allowing wealthy special interests and political advertisers to evade disclosure when spending money to influence federal elections.
In addition to explaining the key trends emerging from this period of the FEC’s work, CLC advocates for solutions that return the FEC to its original mission of enforcing critical campaign finance laws that make elections more transparent and ensuring candidates and elected officials are accountable to the people.
With the recent resignation of Commissioner Sean Cooksey, there is now an opportunity to appoint a new FEC commissioner. It is now more important than ever that the selection process is reformed to ensure that new commissioners actually believe in and support the campaign finance laws the FEC was created to implement and enforce.
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