FEC Seeks Guidance On Issue Ad Rule Changes
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/27/2007 6:34:00 AM MT
The Federal Election Commission wants some help in determining what TV and radio campaign ads can be paid for from corporation or union funds without triggering the ban on electioneering communications in the run-up to a federal primary or general election.
The FEC has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with two options for squaring its rules with a Supreme Court decision two months ago that loosened the restriction on such ads.
Campaign finance law had been interpreted by the FEC to ban those funds for any ads that mentioned a candidate, but the Supreme Court said that was too tight a rein on political speech to square with the First Amendment and that ads that mentioned candidates could get those funds if there were "susceptible to a reasonable interpretation" that they were other than express advocacy for or against a candidate.
The rules apply to TV and radio ads, not print.
Before the ban--60 days before a general election, 30 days before a primary--becomes an issue in December (the first primary is in January 2008), the FEC wants to clarify things for candidates and the media.
The FEC has proposed 1) allowing ads that meet the Supreme Court definition, but requiring the corporate or union funding to be disclosed to the FEC, or alternatively 2) just allowing them without the additional reporting requirements.
It also wants help deciding what kinds of ads qualify under that definition. In the case the Supreme Court heard, the ads had been run by Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL), had been about filibustering judges, and mentioned Senators Russ Feingold and Herbert Kohl, the former a familiar name to campaign finance followers as the co-author with Senator John McCain of the campaign reform laws.
