Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, along with Americans for Campaign Reform, Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, United Republic and U.S. PIRG, are all asking for your help.

The presidential primary season is in full swing, with millions of dollars pouring in to fund deceptive ads designed to mislead voters. Nevertheless, the agency charged with regulating campaign spending – the Federal Election Commission (FEC) – is a dysfunctional mess. Today, a broad coalition of civic organizations led by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) launched a petition drive through the White House’s “We the People” website to force President Obama to get off the sidelines and fix the FEC. The administration has promised an official response to any petition that receives 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

Currently, the three Republicans on the six member commission staunchly refuse to enforce our campaign finance laws. Further, five of the commissioners continue to serve despite expired terms. President Obama could nominate their replacements at any time.

“This is the chance for Americans to send a message to President Obama that fair elections matter,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “For too long, chaos has been allowed to reign at the FEC, allowing unscrupulous candidates and organizations to cheat their way into federal office. It is past time for President Obama to bring ‘change we can believe in to the FEC.’”

Sign the petition here.  You have to get a White House account but it’s painless and if you’re at this website, you should have one anyway.

Pass it around to your friends.  Put it on Facebook and Twitter.  It’s bad enough that we have Citizens United.  We need an Federal Ethics Commission that gives a big bear’s butt about ethics.