The panel voted against letting the Tea Party Leadership Fund shield donor names. | REUTERS FEC: No secret tea party donors

The Federal Election Commission declined on Thursday to grant a tea party group the same exemption from disclosure that it has long granted to left-wing political parties.

The panel voted 3-2 against a proposal that would have allowed the Tea Party Leadership Fund to shield the names and information of their donors from public scrutiny. The measure needed four votes to pass the six-member panel.


Federal courts have recognized that minor party candidates and other political organizations can be entitled to exemptions from disclosure on behalf of their donors, if they might face government retribution or private harassment.

( Earlier on POLITICO: GOP super PACs vs. the tea party)

The only exemption ever granted by the FEC under this principle, however, is for the Socialist Workers Party. The left-wing political party has been granted the right to keep donors secret since 1990 — a special exemption that was renewed by the FEC as recently as 2013.

Separately, federal courts have also granted the Communist Party, the Socialist Action and the Freedom Socialist Party exemption from disclosure laws.

An attorney for the Tea Party Leadership Fund, Dan Backer, argued in a request that totaled more than 1,400 pages that political harassment of tea party groups warranted the same exemption.

( PHOTOS: 8 key players in IRS scandal story)

“There’s an extensive evidentiary trail here,” Backer said Thursday.

Citing this year’s IRS scandal and disparaging comments from elected officials, Backer said harassment of tea party groups went well beyond the rough and tumble of politics.

“I think you have a pattern of conduct that is very broad-based, and both horizontally and vertically. You’ve got harassment and abuse from various federal agencies, you’ve got public [disparagement] from government officials, government officials, private actors, the media,” Backer said.

FEC commissioners opposed to the measure noted that the Socialist Workers Party had only a handful of donors, while the tea party was a mainstream political movement.