Chamber of Commerce, Other Groups Skirt Letter of Law in Reporting Political Ads

[butterfly77]

Chamber of Commerce, Other Groups Skirt Letter of Law in Reporting Political Ads
By Michael Beckel on August 20, 2010 9:00 PM http://www.opensecrets.org/news/

In the final days before last week’s Colorado Republican U.S. Senate primary, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $250,000 on television advertisements touting its preferred candidate, former lieutenant governor Jane Norton (pictured right).

These ads praised Norton’s conservative credentials and ended with the words, “Tell Jane Norton to keep fighting for Colorado taxpayers,” as the screen highlighted the phone number for her campaign headquarters.

A straightforward message to voters to cast their ballot for Norton rather than Tea Party favorite Ken Buck, who ultimately prevailed, right?

Not according to the Chamber, which reported its ad to the Federal Election Commission as a more general “electioneering communication” rather than an “independent expenditure” that expressly advocated for Norton’s election.

“If the Chamber believed its ad contained express advocacy, it would be reporting the ad as an independent expenditure using Form 5, not as an electioneering communication using Form 9,” Paul Ryan, an attorney with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, told OpenSecrets Blog, referring to the paperwork used to report expenses to the FEC.

“Clearly this as is designed to get people to vote for Norton. That, in my view, is the only reasonable interpretation of the ad,” Ryan continued. “In what capacity could Norton, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, ‘fight for Colorado taxpayers’ in Washington other than as the senator she's trying to become?”

J.P. Fielder, a spokesman for the Chamber, was reluctant to discuss the group’s reporting methods.

“The Chamber's ads in Colorado are considered electioneering communication because they fall within the 30-day window before the state's primary,” Fielder wrote in an e-mail to OpenSecrets Blog.

Fielder declined to answer numerous follow-up questions about why the advertisement didn’t meet the definition of an independent expenditure. Nor did he explain why the Chamber hadn’t opted to report the ad as an independent expenditure in light of recent federal court decisions that have loosened restrictions on the ways independent expenditures may be funded.

“I'll be very short because I do agree this conversation is going in circles,” Fielder wrote. “The Chamber is happy to discuss candidates' policy stances and the substance of our ads, but we do not discuss our political strategies.”

In addition to the Norton ad last week, the Chamber utilized the same reporting methods for advertisements supporting Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) during her heated Democratic primary in April and plugging Republican Scott Brown in January during his U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.

The Chamber, however, is far from alone in reporting campaign advertisements that seem reasonably explicit in their advocacy as electioneering communications.

Before the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Arkansas, the labor-backed committee known as Arkansans for Change did the same for its ads opposing Lincoln. And recently, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employers (AFSCME) and the National Education Association also each rep

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The US Chamber of Commerce is a group of domestic terrorists.

They are trying to overthrow our government.
:shrug:

[butterfly77]

3. Every since they knew..

Obama was going to be the President they went full force on trying to finish us off..

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. G.D.LAWYERS