In reaching a 3-3 deadlock, the Federal Election Commission decided to not investigate allegations that an international pornography and advertising firm made $327,000 in donations to a campaign to defeat a ballot initiative in Los Angeles County, a move that some worry could open the door to more foreign money in state elections.
The 2012 ballot initiative in question mandated adult film actors to wear condoms while making pornographic movies. Following the initiative's passage, a complaint was filed by a California HIV-AIDS advocacy group alleging that two pornography distributors connected to global pornography and advertising firm Manwin International SARL violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by donating $327,000 to a campaign to defeat the ballot initiative, reported Reuters.
FEC Chairman Ann Ravel and the two other FEC Democratic commissioners voted to investigate the donations to determine whether the California opposition campaign deserved to be fined for accepting foreign funds.
But the three Republican FEC commissioners voted against investigating the source of the funds because they believe, as does the FEC's office of the General Counsel, that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 does not ban foreign donations to fight local ballot initiatives.
The BCRA prohibits foreign national contributions or donations "in connection with a Federal, State, or local election."
When the FEC deadlocks on an issue, there is no further investigation into the matter.
In her statement of reason, Democratic Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub addressed how the decision could allow more foreign money to infiltrate the U.S. political process: "When Americans go to the polls to vote on Election Day (or mark out mail-in ballot), the choices we make - whether as to candidates or referendum - are part of the same expression of democratic self-governance. Whether exercising out rights to self-government through representative democracy (choosing a candidate for office) or direct democracy (adopting a law via a ballot measure), these are choices in which only Americans have say."
"Imagine, for example, a foreign billionaire who was dissatisfied with U.S. Immigration policy and decided to try to change it more his own liking, one statewide ballot measure at a time. The ballot measure is the mechanism design to most directly express the will of the American people regarding the laws that govern us. I think most Americans would be disturbed by the notion that a wealthy foreigner could freely spend to rewrite our laws."
Craig Holman of the reform group Public Citizen told Reuters that the FEC deadlock signals that foreign influence in candidate and ballot measure campaigns could increase.
"The 'dark money' phenomenon that has flooded elections since the 2010 Citizens United decision has made it easy for foreign interests to secretly launder money into candidate elections," he said.
"The unwillingness of the FEC to enforce the law in ballot measure campaigns, even when the influence of foreign money is in the open, makes our elections open season for foreign intervention."
