Election-Campaign Law

EAC Commissioner to the FEC

By Thad Hall

President Bush nominated two new Republicans and one new Democrat to the Federal Election Commission Tuesday in an attempt to break a Senate confirmation deadlock that had paralyzed the regulatory agency.

Bush resisted efforts to withdraw the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official whom he nominated in 2007 but who had not been able to win votes in the Senate to get confirmed.

The White House said the latest compromise would permit a separate vote on von Spakovsky.

The stalemate over von Spakovsky had left the six-member FEC without a quorum to conduct business despite record fundraising by presidential candidates and the emergence of outside groups that have been testing the limits on advocacy regulations.

The new nominees are Democrat Cynthia Bauerly, a lawyer who serves as legislative director for Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Republicans Caroline Hunter, a former White House official and current member of the Election Assistance Commission, and Donald McGahn, who has served as counsel for the National Republican Congressional Campaign.

Full post as published by Election Updates on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).