FEC hopes the tech world can help get money out of politics

Ann Ravel, chairwoman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, discusses the $1 million fine, the largest in its history, levied against two political action committees for campaign-reporting violations, during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013. The FPPC also ordered two separate groups to pay the state's general fund the amount of money donated to them during the 2012 election cycle by the groups that were fined. The Small Business Action Committee was ordered to pay $11 million while the California Future Fund for Free Markets was ordered to pay $4 million. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) less Ann Ravel, chairwoman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, discusses the $1 million fine, the largest in its history, levied against two political action committees for campaign-reporting ... more Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close FEC hopes the tech world can help get money out of politics 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

“Horrible.”

That’s how Ann Ravel, the Los Gatos resident who chairs the Federal Election Commission, describes her level of frustration at her panel’s ability to regulate the power of money in politics.

Not only is Congress gridlocked by partisanship and unable to do anything to reduce the tens of millions coming from undisclosed donors, but so is Ravel’s commission. However, she retains faith that technology can help to unlock — or at least circumvent — that impasse and give more power to average citizens who don’t have deep pockets.

One problem before that can happen: Too many policymakers don’t get how technology, politics and the law interact. There is a huge digital divide between Silicon Valley and Washington, an abyss that allows big-money donors to have more power to continue to dominate the system in the same way they have for generations.

“We (the commission) are way behind,” Ravel said Thursday in San Francisco, where she helped pull together a daylong conference at UC Hastings College of the Law on how technology is transforming politics. “We are behind in understanding technology, and behind in understanding some of the things that can be done to encourage more people to get involved in the process.”

The complexity of the subject doesn’t help.

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“It’s hard to explain tech policy to everyday people,” said Timothy Yim, director of Hastings’ Privacy and Technology Project.

“Even dumbed down, I think it goes over a huge portion of their heads.”

Yim and Ravel are among those concerned about the increasingly powerful role of a small number of wealthy donors. Since 2010 — when the Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case allowed unlimited political donations from corporations, unions and individuals — nearly one-third of the $2 billion spent by groups outside of political parties came from organizations who were legally able to hide the identity of their donors.

Joe Rospars, who ran the digital operations for President Obama’s two presidential campaigns, said Thursday that he sees technology as a possible solution.

It’s a perspective he reached after the 2012 campaign, when a number of small technological changes implemented by his team — efforts that simplified the online donation process — helped increase Obama’s war chest fourfold, Rospars said.

Keeping pace

That sort of innovation is especially important for Democrats, who rely on small donors more than Republicans, Rospars said. They need to upgrade their campaign technology to keep pace in a world where unlimited big-money donations are increasing.

“I don’t see Congress passing anything to change that, and I don’t think the commission can do anything about it, either,” said Rospars, who is the founder and CEO of Blue State Digital, one of the nation’s leading political technology firms.

Being smarter about technology can help a campaign that is being outspent. There is no shortage of data being gathered on voters and potential voters. But few campaigns know how to use it best.

“We have more data than we can ever possibly use,” said Jordan Lieberman, the president of CampaignGrid. “You can find a cat-owning mom who drives a Prius. But we’re not doing all we could on the back end.”

It’s an art to learning when to stop peppering voters with e-mails and texts. Plus, it is important that those messages have content. Obama’s presidential campaign had 30 people on its video staff to create content for that endless train of digital messages.

Grabbing attention

Technologists understand that they have to give users something to look at or they will click away.

“At what point do we get peak crap, and people stop paying attention?” said Chase Mohney, a client solutions manager for Facebook and a campaign veteran.

Ravel says that technology has the power to bring more people into the political system at time when voter participation rates are declining. She was encouraged that representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter attended Thursday’s conference to talk about ways they are trying to increase voter engagement.

If more people are engaged in the system, they are less likely to be discouraged by the looming specter of big money.

“People in Washington tell me that they don’t think people will be upset by this until there is a big scandal like Watergate,” Ravel said. “But I disagree. Once they see something can be done about it, they will get involved.”

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli