State watchdog who probed secret political money takes U.S. post (LA Times)

State watchdog who probed secret political money takes U.S. post

Ann Ravel investigated nonprofits that spent millions on California campaigns. She may face greater resistance at the Federal Election Commission.

By Chris Megerian and Evan Halper
October 26, 2013

SACRAMENTO — Ann Ravel will start her new job in Washington on Monday with the kind of celebrity status rare for a career government lawyer.

As California's top political watchdog, she launched a landmark investigation into secretive nonprofit groups that spent millions on state campaigns last year, and she announced $16 million in penalties against those groups this week.

Ravel's supporters, who view anonymous political donations as a growing scourge on the American election system, want her to be as aggressive in her new post as a member of the Federal Election Commission, where she was sworn in on Friday.

But transparency advocates hoping for a repeat performance in Washington may be disappointed. The commission Ravel is joining has been deadlocked for years, split evenly between Democrats who want stricter rules and California-style enforcement and Republicans who have opposed such efforts.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-secret-money-ravel-20131027,0,908303.story#axzz2iwdWxnKl