The Democrats on the Federal Election Commission, following efforts to muzzle conservative news sites and even an anti-Obama movie maker, voted in secret to regulate conservative text messages despite a staff recommendation that the agency drop the case.

The three Democrats, in dismissing the advice from the FEC’s own legal staff, voted to punish a Virginia firm that issued anti-Obama texts days before the 2012 presidential election, a move that would have set a sweeping precedent in advance of the upcoming election.