Legal experts to brief sexual harassment panel at California Capitol

Ann Ravel, an elections expert who resigned from the Federal Election Commission last year citing partisan gridlock and dysfunction in the agency, will testify today at the Legislature’s joint committee on sexual harassment prevention. 

Ravel, a Democrat who also formerly served as chairwoman of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, was invited for her expertise on proper enforcement of government rules.

Now a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Ravel’s resignation letter addressed to President Donald Trump last March provides insight into perspective she could bring to the sexual harassment hearings in the Capitol. 

“Commissioners who will carry out the mandates of the law should be appointed,” she said of the Federal Election Commission, earlier criticizing the agency’s Republican bloc for ignoring violations and more broadly, for failing to enforce campaign finance laws.