Disclosure
News & Commentary | Archive BCRA augments existing disclosure requirements and adds new ones. Candidates must personally approve their advertising, making statements of this approval in prescribed form in their radio and television spots. Other reporting requirements are established by way of implementation of the Millionaire's Amendment, so that the FEC, candidates and parties affected by the provision may determine the eligibility of relief provided under this provision. National party committees and candidates are subject to new reporting schedules, and some financial activity previously untouched by the law, such as donations to Inaugural committees, are not subject to disclosure. Disclosure and Two CriticsJohn Lott and Brad Smith argue this morning that donor disclosure is not without cost--to the donors. "Donor Disclosure Has Its Downsides", Wall Street Journal, Dec. 26, 2008 at A13. Their example is Proposition 8, and they use primarily the cases of retaliation against "yes" donors; but they allow that the dangers run in both directions and that "supporters of Prop. 8 [also] engaged in pressure tactics" against donors. These dangers are enhanced, they write, by "easy access to information on the Internet" where "any crank or unhinged individual can obtain information on his political opponents…all but instantaneously".
(12/26/08) Read More Bundling (or Bungled) Regulations?The FEC approved bundling disclosure rules yesterday, and prominent reform advocates objected immediately. Rick Hasen predicts litigation. First, however, we have see to the Explanation and Justification, not yet issued, which could clarify how large a disagreement there is.
(12/19/08) Read More The Internet at the COGEL ConferenceSo it is agreed that the Internet has changed fundraising in American politics; its potency has been proven, and there is no known limit to future innovation in integrating small donor fundraising with other forms of voter mobilization and volunteer recruitment. This is a success story: and in this country, it means that alarms have been sounded. Success begets the regulatory question: what should be done about it?
(12/10/08) Read More This is the New York Times, And It Disapproves of John McCain's MessageThe New York Times writes, in despair, that it is "disheartened" by the mendacious McCain advertising campaign, and most of all, by the "closing line…'I'm John McCain and I approved this message", that brings to a fine finish the most recent specimen of broadcast falsehoods. "Flat-out lies", The Times writes, and then it draws one lesson for voters--that they should be "wary" of all McCain ads--and another lesson for McCain, that he should "fire his ad writers". But here the Times seems reluctant to take away from the facts of the matter the most obvious "lesson"--McCain has no wish nor logical reason to "fire" the writers producing the very ads he is approving.
(9/12/08) Read More Disclaimers: A Decision from the FEC and ClarificationThose who followed the first Federal Election Commission meeting in a long time will know that it issued two Advisory Opinions, adopting the staff recommendations in both instances. One of the Opinions, issued to Club for Growth (2007-33), rejected a modification of the oral disclaimer, the stand by your ad (SBYA), for 10- and 15-second advertisements. The Commission concluded that the statute did not afford such flexibility for non-candidate committees, such as Club for Growth.
(7/30/08) Read More Also...Disclaimers and the Space for Political Messaging: The Question of FEC Authority 7/25/08 The New Argument Over Disclosure 2/1/08 Studying Disclosure, And Its Uses 8/23/07 Disclosure for Thee and Not for Me: and the Warnings (Not) of Mr. Ugarte 6/22/07 Celebrating McCain-Feingold’s Birthday: “Speech! Speech!” 3/28/07 "1984" 3/22/07 Thinking about the “Bundling” Disclosure 2/9/07 The Never Ending Disclosure War 12/20/06 The Anonymous Donor 8/7/06 |