Jennifer Koons writes for Main Justice:
…Former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith, a Republican who like McGahn was an outspoken opponent of campaign finance regulation, acknowledged that the number of tie votes on enforcement issues has increased since his term concluded in 2005. But, he said, there is a misguided view of the magnitude of FEC violations.
“There’s this prevalent belief that there’s a whole bunch of corruption that the FEC just isn’t interested in pursuing, but once you get on the inside you realize there’s not really a lot of corruption in the true sense of people taking bribes and cutting deals,” Smith said. “The vast majority of FECA violations are inadvertent, failures to report or just not realizing you’ve gone over the limit of what you can give.”…
