Election law attorneys Bob Bauer and Larry Gold's oped in Roll Call (paid subscription required), begins: "On Aug. 29, the Federal Election Commission will consider adopting a rule, to take effect immediately, that authorizes unions, other nonprofits and business corporations to finance 'grass-roots lobbying' ads in the period before November elections. Without this rule, any such ad, on any policy issue, within 60 days of the general election would be prohibited if it referred to elected officials who happened also to be candidates. The proposed rule tightly would condition this exemption on the content of the ads, strictly disallowing any electoral messages in support of or opposition to the named candidate."