ARRA News Service: Dems Protect The Worst Of The Democrat Politician Protection Act

Democrats Voted Along Partisan Lines To Retain The Most Outrageous Provisions Of The Democrat Politician Protection Act

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “This bill is a target-rich environment … I would give you some of the highlights that I think are particularly offensive to average voters. Number one, using government money to subsidize campaigns. In effect, money collected from all of us … and given, in effect, to candidates, to finance campaigns, that we may not agree with…. [T]he recent North Carolina [U.S.] House election just set aside because of election fraud. The reason it was set aside is because of something called ballot harvesting, which is illegal in North Carolina, but is legal in California…. Ballot harvesting, mysteriously, is not a part of this parade of horribles. Somehow overlooked in all of this. Another point I would emphasize is the Federal Election Commission has been 3-3 since the post-Watergate period.… [T]he FEC has been 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans for all of these years to prevent either side from taking partisan advantage of the other. Well, in H.R. 1 it’s no longer dead even. The party of the president will have a majority on the FEC and thereby further able to terrorize and intimidate the opposition with impunity.” (Sen. McConnell, Press Conference, 3/06/2019)

“Republicans on the [House Administration C]ommittee, led by ranking member Rodney Davis of Illinois, offered 28 amendments; the panel rejected all of them along party lines.” (“Panel Approves Campaign Overhaul Bill,” CQ Committee Coverage, 2/26/2019)

Democrats Voted To Keep A Provision Letting People Hand Out Taxpayer Money To Campaigns

SEN. McCONNELL: “This is how out of touch with taxpayers the modern Democratic Party has become. They saw these proposals to take the American people’s tax dollars and funnel them straight into more attack ads, yard signs, and telephone calls and thought, What a great idea! Let’s put it in. The Democrat Politician Protection Act would do this in several ways…. There’d be a new Washington D.C.-run voucher program so that would-be political donors could simply ask for chunks of taxpayer money and then hand it out to the campaigns they favor.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 2/12/2019)

REP. RODNEY DAVIS (R-IL), House Administration Committee Ranking Member: “This amendment strikes a section that creates the … voucher pilot program. It provides citizens vouchers which they can then give taxpayer dollars financed vouchers to political candidates as contributions. This is simply a money grab for politicians…. This is not a serious attempt at getting money out of politics as a serious attempt to invest taxpayer dollars to supercharge the amount of money that’s being spent in congressional campaigns throughout this country.” (U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee, Markup, 2/26/2019)

The amendment was rejected with five Democrats voting no and one abstention. (“Panel Approves Campaign Overhaul Bill,” CQ Committee Coverage, 2/26/2019)

Democrats Voted To Keep A Provision Granting Public Money To The Campaigns Of Politicians Taxpayers Might Oppose

SEN. McCONNELL: “There’d also be a brand-new six-fold ‘matching’ program for certain donations. The federal government would literally come in … and use the American people’s money to ‘match’ certain campaign contributions six-fold. In other words, millions of dollars are available for each candidate that comes along asking for his or her share of the taxpayer loot. Keep in mind, this puts each taxpayer on the hook for financing the candidates and campaigns they personally disagree with. They’d take our money, and give it to people we are not for.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 2/12/2019)

REP. BARRY LOUDERMILK (R-GA): “And now we’re going to ask the taxpayers … to fund elections of people they possibly disagree with…. As I look at this … this government subsidy for politicians is the most unbelievable thing that that I think I’ve encountered since I’ve been here in Congress.” (U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee, Markup, 2/26/2019)

REP. DAVIS: “[T]his amendment—this one, of any other, should pass. Nobody should codify lining the campaign coffers of people sitting around this dais, which this portion of the bill does. No one, no one, should be OK with this. Not us. Not taxpayers. No one.” (U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee, Markup, 2/26/2019)

The amendment was rejected with five Democrats voting no and one abstention. (“Panel Approves Campaign Overhaul Bill,” CQ Committee Coverage, 2/26/2019)

Democrats Voted To Turn The FEC ‘Into A Partisan Weapon’

SEN. McCONNELL: “[A]mong the many fairly blatant power plays built into this legislation is a naked attempt to turn our neutral Federal Election Commission into a partisan weapon…. [T]he Democrat Politician Protection Act would take the FEC down to a five-member body and give sitting presidents the power to appoint the chairperson -- who holds the keys to determine who to investigate and what enforcement to pursue. The evenness of the FEC is a vital way to ensuring Americans’ political speech — and campaigns for public office — are regulated fairly and evenhandedly. Of course that needs to be done on a bipartisan basis. But the Democrats want to throw that right out the window and carve out a partisan majority on this crucial commission.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 2/13/2019)

REP. DAVIS: “This one, I certainly hope we can get some agreement on. In Amendment 29, what we do is we strike Section 6002 in this provision in H.R. 1 [that] changes the current six member commission of the FEC to a five member commission…. [T]his provision will take away the bipartisan nature of the FEC right now. The FEC shouldn’t be weaponized by any administration, Republican or Democrat…. Even our congressional ethics committee does not have a partisan leaning…. No. Let’s not make the FEC partisan either.” (U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee, Markup, 2/26/2019)

The amendment was rejected with all six Democrats voting no. (“Panel Approves Campaign Overhaul Bill,” CQ Committee Coverage, 2/26/2019)

The One Thing Democrats Voted To Keep Out Of The Bill? A Provision To Prohibit Ballot Harvesting

SEN. McCONNELL: “What about the murky ‘ballot harvesting’ process that invites misbehavior? It was already illegal in North Carolina, where a congressional election result was thrown out due to fraud. But the practice remains perfectly legal in places like California, where it seems to benefit Democrat politicians. And somehow, for all the other top-down changes that H.R. 1 would force on the country, addressing ballot harvesting didn’t make the cut. Imagine that.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 3/05/2019)

REP. MARK WALKER (R-NC): “This amendment would add a new subtitle to the bill prohibiting the practice of ballot harvesting.”(U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee, Markup, 2/26/2019)

REP. DAVIS: “We are addressing a process that is legal in the state of California right now for anybody to go and pick up ballots and then be trusted to bring them back to the election official’s office without any bipartisanship.” (U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee, Markup, 2/26/2019)

The amendment was rejected with all six Democrats voting no. (“Panel Approves Campaign Overhaul Bill,” CQ Committee Coverage, 2/26/2019)

Tags: Dems Protect, The Worst, Democrat Politician Protection Act, Campaigns & Elections, First Amendment To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!