The oft-divided Federal Election Commission Thursday plans to consider a proposal aimed at reviving languishing state and local political parties, an initiative that appears to have bipartisan support.
Republican Commissioner Lee E. Goodman, a Republican and the previous FEC chairman, said his plan would deregulate state and local parties to let them play a bigger role in fundraising and promoting candidates, register voters and advocate for party nominees.
“All commissioners have said they want to strengthen the political parties, and here’s an idea whose time has come,” said Goodman of the issue he has championed.
Currently state and local parties are prohibited from cooperating with their candidates, similar to super PACs. But because the political action committees can raise and spend more money, the focus of organizers and donors in many states has shifted to them, leaving some state and local parties near bankrupt and irrelevant.
Goodman, a former Virginia State GOP counsel, said that there are three keys to his plan:
— Boost party coordinated communications. It would free political parties to discuss issue advertisements with candidates and republish parts of candidate materials in party materials. It would also permit political parties to distribute volunteer campaign materials without triggering coordination limits.
— Expand political party freedom to engage in volunteer activities such as volunteer mail drives, phone banks, and literature distribution.
— End the FEC’s stranglehold on the parties to let them register voters and urge citizens to vote on behalf of state and local candidates. It would also allow state and local parties to employ people to engage in state and local get-out-the-vote activities with state funds.
Like Capitol Hill, the evenly divided FEC has been split on several issues, but Goodman is hoping to build on recent positive talk from both sides about helping the local party system.
In his letter to FEC explaining this proposal that will be offered at Thursday’s public meeting, he wrote, “A majority of commissioners have expressed a commitment to support the political parties as democratic institutions and to address unnecessary regulatory burdens. While there is much talk about the Commission’s disagreements on regulatory issues, political party regulatory reform offers the Commission an opportunity to work together in a bipartisan way to address the concerns of all political parties. I hope that my colleagues will join me in this constructive opportunity to strengthen some of the most grassroots institutions in American politics.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
