Policing the Politicians: Models for Effective Enforcement

In this transcript, Nicole A. Gordon, Executive Director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board and chair of the Government Ethics Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, moderated a five-person panel on the importance and difficulty of effective enforcement of campaign regulations. The panel discussed the particular trouble of enforcing regulations on political activity where those who are charged with enforcement are subject to the oversight, mandates and budgets determined by the same officeholders whose conduct they are supervising. The 5 panelists were: (1) Rebecca Ávila, Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission; (2) Ken Gross, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in the Washington D.C. office; (3) Larry Noble, general counsel for the Federal Election Commission; (4) Trevor Potter, former head of the Federal Elections Commission; and (5) Robert M. Stern, Co-Director of the Center for Governmental Studies in California. This panel was held during From the Ground Up: Local Lessons for National Reform, a national conference on campaign finance reform held on November 9, 1998, sponsored by the New York City Campaign Finance Board and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.