NYT: F.E.C. to Consider Internet Politicking [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

F.E.C. to Consider Internet Politicking
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: March 6, 2005


WASHINGTON, March 5 - Federal election commissioners are preparing to consider how revamped campaign finance laws apply to political activity on the Internet, including online advertising, fund-raising e-mail messages and Web logs.

Anyone who decides to "set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet" could be subject to Federal Election Commission regulation, Bradley A. Smith, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview posted Thursday on the technology news site Cnet.com....

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After the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law was passed in March 2002, the F.E.C., which is in charge of its enforcement, issued extensive rules to accommodate the law's provisions, including a blanket exemption for all Internet activity. But a federal judge ruled last year that many of the F.E.C. rules were too lax and specifically asked it to address the question of Internet activity.

Although the F.E.C. appealed several elements of the judge's ruling, the Internet provision was not among them, which means it must now address it....

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The six-member commission is divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans; their vote not to appeal the part of the judge's ruling dealing with Internet activity broke along party lines, with Democrats voting not to appeal....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06blog.html