Jan 25, 2008 -- The Atlanta Journal Constitution: Understaffed election commission frozen: Opposition to Ga. Republican blocks other replacements
By: Julia Malone

The Federal Election Commission, which is supposed to enforce campaign laws, met Thursday but could take no action because four of its six seats were empty.

A long-simmering dispute over the appointment of Georgia Republican Hans von Spakovsky to the commission has halted Senate confirmation of all three proposed replacements and left the FEC without the required four members at the start of a major election year.

Chairman David Mason, one of the two remaining commissioners, opened the largely symbolic meeting by lamenting the "unfortunate situation in which we find ourselves."

The lack of a working quorum puts the commission into a holding pattern, especially when it comes to enforcing new disclosure requirements that were co-authored by Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat and presidential candidate.

Under reforms passed last year, candidates are supposed to make public those campaign contributions that are "bundled" by special interest groups if the total exceeds $15,000.

"We're at the stage now where we would normally be holding a public hearing" on new regulations for the bundling provision, said FEC spokesman Bob Biersack, who said the final rules were supposed to be completed in March.

Without the required number of members, Biersack said, "We're in limbo."

Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other for the logjam, which has put Obama in an awkward position as a leader in both passing the reform and in blocking von Spakovsky. Obama and other key Democrats have adamantly objected to seating von Spakovsky, the former GOP chairman in Fulton County, who had served on the FEC since January 2006 in a so-called "recess appointment" that expired at the end of last year.

He incurred the wrath of a coalition of civil rights groups and many Democrats for his role in backing Georgia's voter photo ID law when he was a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice.

In remarks issued Thursday by his campaign, Obama stood by his objections to von Spakovsky. "The FEC needs strong, impartial leadership that will promote integrity in our election system," he said. "I continue to urge the president to send us a nominee who will protect —- and not undermine —- the right to vote."

With two Democratic FEC nominees also awaiting confirmation, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has responded by insisting that the Senate accept von Spakovsky and the two noncontroversial nominees as a package.

Campaign reform groups are caught in the middle.

"Sometimes when politics seeps in, there can be a lot of unintended consequences," said Gerry Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a liberal-leaning group that seeks disclosure of bundlers but also opposes von Spakovsky.

At the FEC, Biersack said the agency still has time to complete the rules enacting the disclosure rules.