The Federal Election Commission member who sought to regulate online political speech is a top candidate under consideration by California Gov. Jerry Brown for a possible appointment as state attorney general, according to experts in the state and in Washington, D.C.
FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel could become the next AG of the state if the incumbent, Kamala Harris, wins election to the Senate next month.
Ravel headed a state-level equivalent of the FEC, the Fair Political Practices Commission. At both agencies, she sought to regulate political speech on websites including Facebook, Twitter and the Drudge Report.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2601753
“She is intelligent and knowledgeable. She is also very partisan,” Ronald Rotunda, who served with Ravel on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, told the Washington Examiner. “I have no doubt that she would use her position as attorney general [using] investigations, subpoenas, and the bully pulpit to regulate and chill online speech.”
Ravel’s work at the FPPC in California culminated in 2013 with a first-of-its-kind regulation that required campaigns to disclose payments of $500 or more to people who posted about their candidate in any online forum. The rule affected mediums such as YouTube, Twitter and personal blogs.
The rule didn’t end at the state line: California campaigns now are required to disclose payments they make to any blogger in the country. Critics said that expansive regulation, coupled with what they see as Ravel’s partisanship, is characteristic of what they would expect under Ravel as attorney general.
“The FPPC is supposed to be nonpartisan and that was my experience with the two prior chairs,” Rotunda said. “In her case, she would, on her own, make decisions by deciding that she would ‘redefine’ various terms — typically to help Democrats — and not tell the commissioners what she was doing.”
Not everyone in California shares that sentiment. “Ann has dedicated her career to government service and has a great deal of experience as a prosecutor,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School who also serves as president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. “She is smart, curious and truly cares about making the government serve the people.”
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2595363
Ravel’s detractors in Washington largely agree with critics on the West Coast, arguing that Ravel often votes to dismiss complaints filed against Democrats, especially those in California, even when it contradicts her principles. That included twice voting to dismiss complaints filed against liberals who used Facebook to engage in political advocacy, despite voting the opposite way when it came to a Republican, and a purported behind-the-scenes lobbying effort aimed at convincing her colleagues to drop eight cases against California Democrats.
“Ravel has essentially turned her FEC office into a constituent services program for California Democrats,” said a longtime FEC observer who asked to remain anonymous.
Republicans have additional reservations as well, taking issue with a litany of Ravel’s positions since she joined the FEC. Those have included calls for reorganizing the agency to enable one-party control, expanding federal election funding to encourage minorities to run for office, and attempting to prevent Americans who work for foreign-owned companies, like Chrysler or Anheuser-Busch, from organizing in elections.
Levinson touted Ravel’s transparency as a selling point, and said that her outspokenness stemmed only from an interest in enabling civic engagement. “She has experience in every level of government,” she pointed out.
“The county counsel of Santa Clara, as a presidential appointee as deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, as the chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission, and now as a presidential appointee to the Federal Election Commission,” Levinson noted. “She’s invested in civic engagement. She would bring transparency and a new perspective in the AG’s office.”
