What Can Political Pros Expect From the FEC This Year? Not a Lot, Experts say
Political professionals are bracing for more gridlock at the Federal Election Commission even as President Donald Trump moves to assert more control over independent agencies.
The six-person commission is now down to just four commissioners after its former Chair Sean Cooksey resigned last month and Trump moved to fire its new chair, longtime Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub in early February.
Trump has yet to nominate replacements for Cooksey and Weintraub. That leaves the FEC with a bare quorum that’s evenly divided between two Republicans and two Democrats.
Julie Sweet, the director of advocacy and industry relations at the American Association of Political Consultants, said that she has little hope that the FEC will take any real action when it comes to campaign finance enforcement or new regulations, at least for the time being.
“I think that what we will likely see is kind of a continuation, which is that the FEC hasn’t taken a whole lot of enforcement actions as of late,” Sweet told C&E in an interview last week. “I think a broad swath of the administration – whether it’s from the FEC or public speeches – is that regulations are kind of off of the table.”
Gridlock at the FEC
The gridlock at the FEC has long been a source of frustration for campaign finance experts and political professionals, especially as the industry adopts rapidly changing technological tools, like artificial intelligence. At the same time, state legislatures have moved quickly in recent years to adopt new rules on such tech, creating a patchwork of regulations.
The FEC has already signaled that it doesn’t intend to issue new regulations on the use of AI to generate deceptive content in federal campaigns and elections, issuing a notice last year stating that existing federal law already prohibits fraudulent misrepresentation in elections.
With the current commission, Sweet said, the FEC isn’t likely to revisit that decision any time soon.
“They made a determination that they were going to be tech neutral in terms of their requirements, so I don’t expect to see them coming back at that again,” she said.
That may come as a relief to some campaign professionals. Federal regulators often struggle to keep pace with technological advancements, said Jason Torchinsky, a campaign finance lawyer who serves as general counsel for the AAPC. In turn, regulating new tech too aggressively comes with risks of limiting free speech.
“Since campaigns and tech are so integrated, tech moves faster than the law does,” Torchinsky said.
