…”He worked to preserve the rights of speakers with whom he disagreed as much as those with whom he agreed, and to enforce the law fairly,” said Bradley Smith, a former FEC chairman and head of the Center for Competitive Politics, a group that has opposed efforts to strengthen campaign finance laws.
McGahn’s admirers didn’t fall strictly along partisan lines. On the commission, McGahn frequently sided with Democratic lawyers who sought clarification of campaign finance laws, or permission to push the boundaries of those laws into theretofore uncharted territory. McGahn and Marc Elias, a lawyer at Perkins Coie who counts most of the Senate Democratic caucus as his clients, had a particularly close working relationship.
“Don McGahn’s departure would be a major change for the FEC. He has been a hugely consequential Commissioner,” tweeted Brian Svoboda, Elias’s partner at Perkins Coie who represents much of the House Democratic leadership.
