BNA reports ($) that Steven T. Walther, Robert D. Lenhard, Hans von Spakovsky, and David M. Mason have been nominated for appointment to the FEC. They all currently serve on the FEC now. The article also reports that, as expected, the President has nominated Caroline Hunter and Rosemary Rodriguez to the EAC. The article inorrectly reports that they are recess appointees to the EAC. (I also believe the article is incorrect in calling FEC commissioner Mason, who was confirmed to the FEC but whose term has expired, a recess appointee.) The official White House announcement is here
I do not know if these nominations will sail through the Senate or not. On the one hand, de facto each of the major parties gets an equal number of appointments on these commissions, and so there may be no fuss. On the other hand, someone like Sen. McCain may oppose one or more of the FEC nominees if he believes they are not sufficiently committed to enforcing BCRA. In addition, there has been some controversy over Commissioner Von Spakovsky’s past writings that could come up at a hearing on his nomination.
As for the EAC commissioners, I would certainly hope (but I don’t hold my breath) that some Senators could use the EAC confirmation hearings as a reason to examine how things are going at that agency. I’ve been very, very troubled by what has happened to the agency in recent months, and I have expressed concern that these two new appointments are going to make the board more partisan. As a knowledgeable observer remarked to me recently about the EAC, “It looks like Congress got exactly the agency it hoped for when it set up the EAC.” I hope that’s not already the case. If I find some time, I hope to do more extensive writings on the failures to date of the EAC.