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NEW LAW CHILLS SPEECH, ATTORNEYS TELL COURT Election Commission Devises Test To Enforce Cost Limits on Political Ads By Sharon Theimer, The Associated Press, Reported in Las Vegas Review-Journal, 12-06-02 WASHINGTON - A federal Court Thursday heard challenges to the new campaign finance law's limits on the ads that political parties and interest groups run on behalf of candidates. Lawyers opposing the limits told a three-judge panel the law will chill political speech by corporations, labor unions, and political parties. They were among several groups challenging the law in a hearing that began Wednesday. Jan Baran, an attorney for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others, said the law prohibits corporations and labor unions from coordinating expenditures with candidates. That, he argued, unconstitutionally hinders the groups from lobbying Congress because their political activities could be subject to FED investigations. "Where are the bright lines?" Baran said. "These risks are not hypothetical." Charles Bell, an attorney for the California Democratic and Republican parties, said the coordination limits would force national and state political parties to police the activities of scores of local party committees. That is because the law treats party committees at all levels as one group when any of them makes a coordinated expenditure for a candidate, Bell said. Once such an expenditure is made, the party cannot spend independently on behalf of the same candidate. The FEC agreed Thursday that the law does treat all party committees as one group. The commission detailed a test to determine when the cost of ads run by political parties or interest groups on a candidate's behalf will be subject to federal contribution limits. The commission said it will examine such ads to see whether they have been coordinated with a candidate's campaign if they call for a candidate's election or defeat, if they are run within 120 days of an election, or if they are targeted at voters and refer to a candidate or political party. If the commission determines that such ads have been coordinated, the costs would be subject to federal contribution limits. Campaign finance watchdogs said the new standard would allow outside groups and political parties to run attack ads for weeks before elections in states that have early primaries, without any FEC scrutiny. The law took effect Nov. 6. It bans national parties from raising soft money, the unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and others that the parties had spent on issue ads, get-out-of-vote drives and operating costs. WORKING TOGETHER TO ATTAIN FAIRNESS | ||
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