Campaign finance laws are a byzantine maze that candidates and PACs must find their way through to avoid violations.  What's worse, the Federal Election Commission can interpret those laws any way it wishes, punishing some groups while letting others skate. The only way the FEC can punish an organization is by fining it.  But Congress forgot to give the agency enforcement powers when it created it.  The FEC can hector, cajole, even threaten groups to pay what they legally owe in fines – but if a group doesn't want to pay, the FEC has little recourse to collect. Politico is reporting that the Center for Public Integrity has discovered that 160 candidates and political groups have refused to pay $1.3 million in fines to the FEC.  The agency could take these groups to court – but doesn't.  And it can't turn them over to the Justice Department, either.  So the agency simply marks the debt as "uncollectible" and...(Read Full Post)