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Advocacy Blog
Friday, July 06, 2007
FEC to Consider Two Campaign Financing Decisions
On July 11 during a public hearing the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is set to consider a regulation on "hybrid ads," to possibly allow political parties help finance the television advertising of campaigns. The proposed new FEC rule would allow a party to pay for up to 75 percent of any candidate's advertising costs. The hybrid ad rulemaking came up after the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign used Republican National Committee funds to pay over $40 million in ads. The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed comments with the FEC on the proposed rulemaking.
The FEC also has a pending advisory opinion request asking that a presidential campaign be allowed to use private money from a special legal and accounting fund (GELAC) to pay for a large portion of its TV ads. The GELAC is made up of private contributions which publicly funded candidates are allowed only to use for legal and accounting costs while money for other campaign expenses, such as advertising, is supposed to come from the public financing program. However, the Kerry campaign argues it should be allowed to use GELAC funds to cover some of a vendor's paperwork expenses. Democracy 21 and Campaign Legal Center oppose the advisory opinion request because of concerns that it would undermine the purpose of the public financing system. For more information on the July 12 public hearing, visit the FEC website.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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