ABSTRACT
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has generally been praised for its role in collecting, collating and disseminating detailed information concerning the financing of federal elections. Equally universal as the praise received by the Commission for its disclosure activities is the criticism directed at it for allegedly lax enforcement of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Congressional sources have frequently urged the Commission to concentrate its limited enforcement resources on major violations of the FECA where there appears to have been intentional wrongdoing. The FEC has regularly appeared on the endangered species list of many Congressmen and Senators. Indeed, there have been attempts to scuttle the Commission by a variety of means, including the withdrawal of sufficient budgetary support. As numerous critics have observed, the perceptions of partisanship and lax enforcement are sufficient by themselves to tarnish the credibility of the FEC.
