• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Campaign Finance>
  3. fec>

FEC can't help Kentucky GOP because of ... Kentucky’s McConnell

Sara Swann
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
November 08, 2019
Radio host Matt Jones and Blackjewel Coal miner Chris Rowe

Kentucky Republicans want the FEC to investigate radio host Matt Jones (seated, interviewing unemployed coal miner Chris Rowe), but the commission has too few members to operate.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Kentucky Republican Party is alleging campaign finance wrongdoing by a radio host considering a longshot bid for Mitch McConnell's Senate seat. But the complaint won't ever get answered without the help of the Senate majority leader himself.

That's because the case has been filed with the Federal Election Commission, which is now into its third month without the minimum membership necessary to begin even the most routine enforcement proceedings. And the reason for that is Kentucky's own McConnell. In his view the FEC that regulates best is the one that regulates least, and so he's bottled up the nomination that would give the agency a four-person quorum.


The agency has been at a policymaking standstill since the beginning of September, when Republican commissioner Matthew Petersen resigned leaving just three of his colleagues behind.

At the start of November, the FEC had a backlog of more than 300 enforcement matters, 90 of them awaiting decisions by the commissioners.

President Trump two years ago nominated Texas attorney Trey Trainor, a Republican, but the Senate has not so much as held a hearing on him. And, since all three remaining commissioners are serving past the expiration of their terms, which the law allows, some in the GOP say the time is ripe for Trump to put forward an entire slate of six. By law no more than three could be from his party.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Democrats say that, as an interim step, they would be content to seat one new commissioner from each side so that enforcement could get started along with the real ramp-up in 2020 presidential and congressional campaign fundraising activities.

The complaint filed Wednesday alleges that popular liberal sports radio host Matt Jones is improperly receiving corporate contributions in the form of free air time from iHeartRadio, the distributor of his sports talk show, and Simon & Schuster, the publisher of his upcoming book about McConnell.

While the FEC is powerless to act, one of the nation's biggest radio networks is not, and on Thursday iHeartRadio took Jones off the air until he decides whether to run.

Jones has not yet officially filed papers declaring his run next year. But he did launch an exploratory committee in September and his most recent FEC filing (the agency is still allowed to accept those) says the committee's only income has been a $9,702 loan from the prospective candidate.

If Jones gets in the race he would face tough competition for the Democratic nomination from Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot and unsuccessful 2018 House candidate who has already raised $10 million.

Jones' book deal has been a thorn in the Republican Party's side as well. To promote the book (tentatively titled "Mitch, Please!") he plans to travel to all 120 counties in Kentucky to detail how, in his mind, McConnell has had a negative impact on the state throughout his 30-year Senate tenure. The complaint says this book tour is "inextricably linked" to Jones' political campaign.

From Your Site Articles
  • Bullock wants public financing, but the FEC's powerless to give it to ... ›
  • Deal to revive FEC could include its first African-American member ... ›
  • FEC severely limited by lack of quorum - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Kentucky sports radio host Matt Jones announces he will not run for ... ›
  • Kentucky Sports Radio's Matt Jones off the air after FEC complaint ... ›
  • The Federal Election Commission Needs 4 of 6 Members to Enforce ... ›
fec

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Jeremy Garson

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Jay Paterno

Re-imagining Title IX: An opportunity to flex our civic muscles

Lisa Kay Solomon

'Independent state legislature theory' is unconstitutional

Daniel O. Jamison

How afraid are we?

Debilyn Molineaux

Politicians certifying election results is risky and unnecessary

Kevin Johnson
latest News

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Amanda Becker, The 19th
10h

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Our Staff
11h

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

David Meyers
23 June

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Our Staff
23 June

Podcast: Past, present, future

Our Staff
23 June

Video: America's vulnerable elections

Our Staff
22 June
Videos

Video: Memorial Day 2022

Our Staff

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Bridge Alliance intern Sachi Bajaj speaks at the June 12 Civvy Awards.

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Leadership
abortion law historian Mary Ziegler

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Campaign Finance
Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Media
Abortion rights and anti-abortion protestors at the Supreme Court

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Big Picture
Virginia primary voter

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Voting