Dear Mr. President,

On April 11, 2012, CREW and 11 other groups wrote to President Obama - again - to follow up on the success of the WhiteHouse.gov “We the People” petition, signed by more than 27,000 people across the country.

The petition asks the president to replace five members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) whose terms have expired. At least two of those commissioners are strongly opposed to actually doing their jobs - enforcing existing campaign finance regulations.

The White House has promised a response to any petition that crosses the 25,000-signature threshold. But in this case, so far, the promise has not been kept. The president has the opportunity and responsibility to address the dysfunction at the FEC; the agency will not change until he nominates five new commissioners.

While this will be an uphill battle with Senate leadership, we believe a fair and vigilant FEC is worth fighting for. It is essential that any nominee to the FEC be committed to enforcing campaign finance laws as written by Congress and interpreted by the courts. Individuals ideologically opposed to these laws must no longer be entrusted with the responsibility to enforce them.