FEC's top Democrat takes show on road
Average people don't seem to care about the Federal Election Commission, and the FEC, in its insularity, doesn't seem to care much about such people.
That's Vice Chairwoman Ann Ravel's dour assessment about her often bedraggled agency's state of affairs — a state she's bent on changing through a one-woman public relations gambit that will criss-cross the country and begins tonight in Denver.
On most of the issues before the FEC, the agency receives input from a small set of election lawyers, political practitioners and special interest groups, Ravel notes. The agency, which only has a physical presence in Washington, D.C., must work harder to connect with people outside the Beltway who nevertheless care about how federal campaigns are waged.
"I've been surprised with the FEC and how insular it is," said Ravel, who became a commissioner in October 2013 and vice chairwoman in January. "There's no mechanism for this commission to listen to people's questions on campaign finance issues, so my response is to do this."
Ravel's outreach tour, which also includes stops Tuesday in Chicago and in Atlanta on Oct. 23, likely foreshadows how she'll conduct business in 2015, when she's slated to assume the FEC's rotating chairmanship. Ravel confirmed she will travel to at least several other cities upon becoming chairwoman.
Ravel says she's mostly interested in soliciting people's opinions and ideas about campaign finance matters, regardless of their political persuasions. Her staff, she said, has invited tea party faithful, civic groups and campaign money reformers alike to weigh in at her events. Anyone else is welcomed to attend as well.
But Ravel, who until last year led the California Fair Political Practices Commission as an outspoken political disclosure advocate, acknowledged she won't be shy about her concerns that "dark money" — cash used by politically active groups that don't reveal their funders — is souring public elections.
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This story is part of Primary Source. Primary Source keeps you up-to-date on developments in the post-Citizens United world of money in politics. Click here to read more stories in this blog.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
