Score One For First Amendment: Unaffiliated Bloggers Safe From Campaign Restrictions, Says the FEC
The Federal Election Commission has ruled in two recent opinions that independent bloggers - those unaffiliated with political action committees (PACs) and campaigns - are not subject to the restrictive campaign laws that apply to candidates and their organized supporters. ZDNet story here; Ars Technica report here.
John Bambenek (presumably the same who writes at parttimepundit.com) filed one of the complaints against well-known Democratic-loving DailyKos. Ars Technica reports:
Bambenek seized on statements that the blog was out to “elect Democrats” and that it contributed at least the equivalent of $1,000 per year (in hosting fees and salaries) toward this goal. Thus, in his view, DailyKos was a political committee. “Can a political committee avoid campaign regulations by simply organizing in the form of a blog?” he asked. “Surely not.”
The FEC said, “We think not.”
It’s going to be an interesting campaign season, kids.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
[...] were parts of the Democratic debate on December 4th that were uncomfortable or imperfect. The question about buying Chinese toys [...]