All of us at the Campaign Legal Center were shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the passing this morning of Bob Edgar, the tireless and dedicated president of Common Cause. Bob brought passion and integrity to all of his many undertakings and his steadfast presence and dedication in the reform community will be sorely missed.  We had the pleasure of working with Bob on a great many initiatives since he took the helm at Common Cause.  We greatly appreciated and admired his ability to remain upbeat and committed to improving our democracy, whether in the face of triumph or setback.  For Bob, a setback like the ill-considered Supreme Court decision in Citizens United could never be used as an excuse to cede the field.  Instead, he chose to use it as a clarion call to safeguard democracy and immediately set about mobilizing for justice.  Our democracy will miss his leadership, but his work will go on.       

We would like to express our condolences to his family and to all of those who worked with Bob at Common Cause. We join them in mourning his passing.

Today, the Campaign Legal Center, joined by Democracy 21, filed comments with the Federal Election Commission urging the agency not to further weaken its already ineffective enforcement of campaign finance laws. In response to a commission notice requesting comment as to whether the FEC is effectively enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), the watchdogs’ response is an emphatic “no.” But the agency goes further and asks for comments as to whether it should further undermine its anemic enforcement process by adopting an officially policy of willfully ignoring publicly available information and legal theories not specifically cited in complaints filed with the agency. The watchdogs warn the FEC that the proposed policy of willful ignorance would only worsen an already ineffective enforcement process.

“The FEC has long been known as a paper tiger among enforcement agencies but it is breathtaking that it would even consider a proposal to defang itself further by doing even less than it is now to enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws,” said Paul S. Ryan, Campaign Legal Center Senior Counsel. “We certainly hope the Commission will refrain from adopting this nonsensical proposal to intentionally ignore readily accessible public information and valid legal theories during the enforcement process. It is vitally important that hardworking FEC staff investigators not have their hands tied behind their backs by the political appointees, when it comes to using the few tools at their disposal as they attempt to fulfill the mission of the agency.”

To read the comments filed by the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, click here.

To read the letter referenced in the comments, click here.

This evening, the Campaign Legal Center officially dedicated the Ham Rove Memorial Conference Room, with an assist from comedian Stephen Colbert, in order to meet the sole condition for accepting a generous check from the Ham Rove Memorial Fund. The popular host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report provided videotaped remarks (link below) for the occasion and personally donated a life-sized portrait of himself, which now hangs at the Legal Center.  

The Ham Rove Memorial Fund was created by Mr. Colbert with money he raised though his Colbert Super PAC. Legal Center President Trevor Potter, through his private law practice, was a frequent guest on the show serving as Mr. Colbert’s attorney and explaining the intricacies of campaign finance and tax law. Mr. Potter helped to create the Colbert Super PAC, the related 501(c)(4) Colbert Super PAC SHH and ultimately the Ham Rove Memorial Fund where the hundreds of thousands of dollars from Colbert Super PAC had vanished in November 2012 without a trace, courtesy of loopholes in the IRS regulations.

“You have to admire a man who gives you his untraceable 501(c)(4) money, knowing you’ll use it in an attempt to shut down untraceable 501(c)(4) money,” Legal Center Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert, remarked at the event beneath Colbert’s portrait. “We hope to use Mr. Colbert’s generous donation to bring about much needed reforms in the campaign finance arena.” 

"Stephen Colbert did an amazing job of distilling the complexities of Super PACs and 501(c)(4)s into something that the general public could instantly grasp," Legal Center President Trevor Potter said before unveiling Colbert's portrait at the event. "That coverage did more to educate the American public on the fallout from the Citizens United decision, secret money in campaigns, and the problems with the FEC's and IRS's non-enforcement of the laws, than anything else in the last election cycle," said Potter.

Potter noted that the contribution was an unexpected bonus above and beyond the valuable public service Mr. Colbert provided in airing the segments on his show. The Colbert Report was awarded with a prestigious Peabody Award for the segments of the show related to the Super PAC and the nation’s completely dysfunctional campaign finance system in the wake of the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision and a series of failures by regulatory agencies, including the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The contribution of $136, 852.41 was officially made by The Ham Rove Memorial Fund of Coastal Community Foundation on the recommendation of Stephen Colbert.

To watch the dedication speech taped for the occasion by Stephen Colbert, click here.

Today, a proposed consent judgment and decree was presented to a three-judge court in Washington, DC, granting a Voting Rights Act bailout to the City of Wheatland, California. If approved, Wheatland will add to the growing list of state or local governments to bailout from the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Those provisions known as Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act are being challenged in a case currently being weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder.  Numerous critics of Section 5 argued in briefs to the court that the bailout process was far too arduous and cost-prohibitive, neither of which is true. Earlier this year, Brown’s Valley Irrigation District (CA) bailed out, as did the State of New Hampshire. Two other local governments (the City of Falls Church, VA, and California’s Yuba County Water Agency) have bailout lawsuits pending in the DC Court.

 “The continuing string of successful bailouts make a mockery of the arguments that the bailout process is illusory, too arduous and too expensive. Further, these bailouts prove that the coverage formula self-tailors, and therefore Section 5 coverage adjusts to current needs required to protect the franchise,” said Campaign Legal Center Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert, who serves as legal counsel for the California jurisdictions, the State of New Hampshire, and the City of Falls Church in his capacity as a solo practitioner.  “The Voting Rights Act remains a vital bulwark of our democracy but these jurisdictions, like many others, have proven that they maintain nondiscriminatory voting practices and no longer require Section 5 coverage. Still more bailouts are in the works proving beyond a doubt that the bailout process is working effectively.”

 To read the joint motion to enter consent judgment and decree, click here. To read the proposed consent judgment and decree, click here.

The Campaign Legal Center filed a friend of the Court brief discussing bailout in Shelby County v. Holder.  To read the brief, click here.