First Order of Business: "Stand By Your Ad" Disclaimer
by Amanda Adams*, 7/24/2008
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) with its new panel of commissioners is expected to vote Monday July 28 on the first FEC advisory opinions. Club for Growth PAC has requested that they can exclude the spoken "stand-by-your-ad" disclaimers from short television advertisements. The draft advisory opinion to be voted on rejects their request. The group argued that the ten to fifteen second spots it plans to run for candidates are too short to include the standard four second spoken disclaimers, such as "Paid for by Club for Growth PAC and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee." Instead, they want to identify itself as the ad's backer in four second visual disclaimers.
The draft advisory opinion states, "All public communications made by a political committee must include certain disclaimers. In addition, all public communications made by any person, including a political committee, that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified Federal candidate must include disclaimers."
