Sen. McCain and the Republican National Committee are using election law loopholes to keep building his campaign war chest.

The Federal Election Commission is just about back in business following a months-long stalemate over the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky for one of the open seats on the Commission. Von Spakovsky later withdrew his name from the nomination process. With the confirmation of three Republicans and two Democrats by the Senate, the FEC will now have quorum to issue binding decisions.

The FEC has decided to keep in place a ban on online contributions from committees like ActBlue from counting towards matching funds from the presidential public financing program (remember the letter we wrote about this last week). This is a disappointing decision; read commentary here on the decision and reactions to it, including comments from Public Campaign's president Nick Nyhart.

This Friday, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is considering a ruling that would ban some small-dollar donations given through the web from triggering public matching funds for candidates who have opted into the presidential public financing system. You can read our letter to the FEC here arguing against such a ban here and sign your name to the letter. We will deliver this letter, along with all signatures, on Thursday.