THE NATION
Panel Deluged on Advocacy Groups' Election Ads
E-mails, faxes pour in as the FEC begins hearings on proposed changes to spending rules.
By Lisa Getter, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Peek inside the in-box of the Federal Election Commission and you'll find thousands of e-mails from people who want an immediate crackdown on the liberal groups that are spending millions of dollars on advertising in an attempt to defeat President Bush in November....
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But thousands of e-mails also have come from union members, nonprofit representatives and people like Dannie Wolf of Lawton, Okla., who fear that the FEC is about to erode their 1st Amendment right to speak freely....
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Inundated by more than 140,000 e-mails and 11,000 faxes — the most in its 29-year history — the FEC will begin hearings today on what, if anything, it should do to regulate the so-called 527 groups and other nonprofit advocacy organizations that spend money to influence elections....
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The six-member bipartisan commission is to vote on the matter May 13, although it is not clear whether it has the four votes necessary to change the rules....
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-527s14apr14,1,809356.story?coll=la-home-politics