i L i n d . n e t

I received an email several weeks ago from a reader who described an idea for a do-it-yourself political ad campaign. Here’s how he described it.

I want things to change but I don’t want waste my money by making donations to someone’s political campaign. Why should I donate to others when I can do it myself and say exactly what I feel needs to be said?

I’m sick of treating politics like it’s a spectator sport.

I want to help make positive changes for the greater good or maybe help to discourage politicians from passing reckless laws that do more harm than good.

However – It’s scary… I’ve never picked a fight with an elected official before. Going one-on-one with a Senator, Congressman or Governor is intimidating.

AND – I want to stay out of legal trouble. I don’t want to inadvertently screw up my happy life in the process.

This is my plan…

My plan is to launch an online banner ad campaign targeting politicians or corporations that are heavily, politically invested with issues like internet censorship.

Banner ads are dirt cheap. You can get nearly 100,000 banner ad impressions delivered to a specific geographic area & a set of relevant keywords for about $100.

The banner ads show up on national websites but only to the people in the geographic area being targeted and only on relevant websites that match the keywords you’re targeting.

So anyway… I believe that I’m free to promote 100% truthful statements online about peoples voting records, direct quotes, public statements, etc…

I plan on creating banner ads and spending $100 per month on them… I don’t plan on creating websites; just banner ads. I plan on pointing the banner ads to other peoples websites like mainstream news sites, YouTube videos, Congressional voting records, niche news blogs, etc…

For example… If my banner ad features a direct quote… I’ll link the banner ad to an article on a mainstream news website that features the quote and focuses on the possible ramifications of what the statement could mean for American citizens.

So – What do I need to know so I can keep myself out of trouble?

I first thought about whether the state Campaign Spending Law would apply.

An individual could be considered a noncandidate committee if the person collects money from others to use for for campaign activities. In this case, though, the reader would use only his own funds, and so would not have to register and report as a committee.

“Noncandidate committee” means an organization, association, party, or individual that has the purpose of making or receiving contributions, making expenditures, or incurring financial obligations to influence the nomination for election, or the election, of any candidate to office, or for or against any question or issue on the ballot; provided that a noncandidate committee does not include:

(1) A candidate committee;

(2) Any individual making a contribution or making an expenditure of the individual’s own funds or anything of value that the individual originally acquired for the individual’s own use and not for the purpose of evading any provision of this part; or

(3) Any organization that raises or expends funds for the sole purpose of producing and disseminating informational or educational communications that are not made to influence the outcome of an election, question, or issue on a ballot. [emphasis added]

It clearly looks like the proposed activities would not qualify him as a non candidate committee.

Oh, one more thing. He wants to remain anonymous.

State law requires every campaign ad to contain the name and address of the ad’s sponsor.

But it doesn’t appear the proposed ads would be covered because they would be simple quotes or statements of fact, and would not expressly advocate voting for or against a candidate.

Here’s how the campaign spending law defines an “advertisement”:

“Advertisement” means any communication, excluding sundry items such as bumper stickers, that;

(1) Identifies a candidate directly or by implication, or identifies an issue or question that will appear on the ballot at the next applicable election; and

(2) Advocates or supports the nomination, opposition, or election of the candidate, or advocates the passage or defeat of the issue or question on the ballot.

And if they are not “advertisements” under the campaign spending law, they apparently wouldn’t have to disclose who is paying for them.

But the reader is still worried.

Here’s what he said:

Two things that cause a conflict in my brain are:

1) My desire to play fair…

2) My need to remain anonymous due to my fear of how some people prefer to “Kill the messenger” instead of deal with the facts.

In your opinion… Is unfair for someone like myself to publicly rub other people’s noses in the facts while remaining anonymous?

Or is it… Facts are facts. Deal with it. The messenger is irrelevant.

I responded by saying that it doesn’t take much digging to see that there is a long tradition of anonymous political speech in this country, and that courts have generally upheld the right to speak anonymously.

That aside, however, it’s still a source of controversy.

So, in the end, I think the reader’s do-it-yourself idea can be done without tripping over the state campaign spending law, so long as the messages avoid advocating election or defeat of specific candidates.

But federal law is so much more complex, I’m at a loss to offer any advice there. Hopefully someone else will have some useful ideas there.