Press Releases

End Citizens United Action Fund & Good Government Coalition Urge Senate Republicans to also Nominate A Democrat to the FEC

Mar 10, 2020

End Citizens United (ECU) Action Fund and a coalition of good government groups today sent a letter to Senator Roy Blunt, Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, expressing their objection to Trey Trainor, Senate Republicans’ nominee to the FEC. Trainor, who has been described as a “mega-advocate” for deregulating campaign finance laws and dark money, would be a disaster for our democracy.

ECU Action Fund President Tiffany Muller issued a statement last week rejecting Trainor’s nomination to the FEC. Click here to read the statement.

The letter reads:

“We are writing to express our strong objection to the White House’s troubling decision to proceed with only a Republican nominee to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), despite the fact that a Democratic nominee has already been vetted and is also awaiting confirmation. The FEC should have a full complement of six commissioners that are willing to enforce our nation’s campaign finance laws—and the appointment process should be free from partisan gamesmanship.

“It is unacceptable to only nominate the Republican candidate to the FEC when there is a fully vetted Democratic candidate pending. There is no excuse to refuse consideration of the Democratic nominee. Doing so is sheer partisan politics and undermines the integrity of a fair and balanced appointment process for this bipartisan agency.”

Click here to read the full letter

The For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 949) would make crucial reforms to the FEC to ensure that the agency is not mired in partisan gridlock and has real enforcement power. The provisions laid out in the For the People Act include restructuring the Federal Election Commission to break gridlock and making the FEC’s civil penalty authority permanent.

End Citizens United Action Fund encourages ECU’s four million members to call their elected officials, host petition drives, participate in letter to the editor campaigns, and join coalitions of other grassroots advocacy groups to get big money out of politics.

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