Meehan Sues Federal Agency: Campaign Finance Champion Says Election Commission Ruined His Law
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Oct. 09, 2002–The fight for campaign finance reform took a major twist as Rep. Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, filed suit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Tuesday, saying the agency has made a sham of his finance reform law, which Congress approved this year.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, contends that the FEC thwarted the intention of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, which Meehan wrote with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), and Russell Feingold (D-WI).
After the bill passed in March, the FEC was charged with writing the rules to govern soft-money contributions. However, Meehan alleges that the agency purposefully voted to keep loopholes open that his legislation was meant to close. The law takes effect on Nov. 6, the day after the midterm elections.
The agency wanted to keep the status quo, Meehan said. After all, “the FEC helped create soft money,” he added.
Meehan pointed to what he called one major misstep by the FEC, when, in writing its rules, it changed the definition of “solicit” from “request, suggest or recommend” to “ask,” thus allowing what the lawsuit called “wink and nod” requests for campaign contributions.
Changes such as that are contrary to the language, intent and purpose of the campaign finance reform legislation, Meehan and his fellow plaintiffs say.
The FEC’s regulations are “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law,” the lawsuit reads.
Meehan, Shays and the two senators have teamed with longtime campaign finance reform advocate Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy21. Wertheimer said the FEC effectively rewrote the law because four of its six commissioners serve the two major political parties.
“They are put there to represent the views of political parties opposed to the laws,” said Wertheimer. “They function as agents of the parties.”
“It is the system that is harmed, the public interest that is harmed,” Meehan said.
Three of the commissioners were appointed by President Clinton, two by President Reagan and one by the current President Bush.
The FEC has two months to prepare and file a reply with the court, and a hearing date will be set after that. A formal hearing is not likely until next year, Meehan predicted.
Meehan says he feels confident about his suit’s chances, calling it just another stage in the fight.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
