Democrats Block Vote on Georgian for FEC

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin blocked a confirmation vote Thursday on former Fulton County Republican Party Chairman Hans von Spakovsky for the Federal Elections Commission.

Von Spakovsky, a former Atlanta attorney and Justice Department official, has been serving on the commission as a recess appointee of President Bush since Jan. 4, 2006.

Obama and Feingold thwarted a deal by Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate that would have allowed a vote on von Spakovsky along with votes on three other nominees to the commission that oversees the nation's elections.

"While at the Department of Justice, Hans von Spakovsky was directly involved in efforts to politicize the Department and use the Voting Rights Section to disenfranchise voters, rather than enforce our nation's civil rights laws," Obama and Feingold said in a joint statement.

"As a recess appointee to the FEC he has been a committed, ideological opponent of the campaign finance laws he is supposed to enforce," they continued. "Putting him at the head of the FEC is just another example of this administration putting the fox in charge of the hen house. We oppose his nomination, and any effort to tie his nomination to the other pending nominations to the FEC."

Facing such opposition, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has pushed to follow the Senate tradition of considering the nominees in bipartisan pairs. Along with von Spakovsky, three other nominations are pending and must be acted upon before the end of the year in order for their terms to continue.

"I have been less than enthusiastic about a number of the nominees that have been put forward by the Democratic Party over the years," McConnell told Congress Daily AM, a magazine that covers Capitol Hill. "But the view has always been that the Democrats pick the Democratic candidates and the Republicans pick the Republican candidates."

Because of opposition by liberal groups to von Spakovsky, however, party leaders had worked out a deal where there would be an initial vote on him. If he is confirmed, there would be a vote on the other nominees as a bloc. However, if von Spakovsky were not confirmed, there would be no vote on the others.

Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said "we've been trying to work this out" to get votes on all the nominees but "there are very strong feelings" against von Spakovsky.

He said the Georgian is "not my cup of tea" to be on the commission charged with insuring fair elections.

In an editorial lambasting the "bipartisan fix" to get a package vote for the FEC nominees, the New York Times called von Spakovsky "one of the Bush administration's most aggressive party hacks at the Justice Department."

Aides for both Democratic and Republican senators said Thursday that prospects for a vote are uncertain.