Via the Star Tribune's Morning Hot Dish, Paul S. Ryan, Senior Counsel at the Campaign Legal Center concludes in a blog post, Do Misleading Campaign Websites Violate Federal Law?"
. . .Finally, it is not sufficient, as some have asserted, that a reader who scrutinizes these websites more closely will ultimately recognize that they oppose, rather than support, the candidate named in the title. The FEC regulations make it clear that “the title” must unambiguously indicate such opposition. The regulations thus put the burden on political committees to refrain from creating misleading websites – not on the voting public to sort through intentionally confusing language.
Consequently, these misleading websites violate federal law. The NRCC should take down these websites and the FEC should initiate an enforcement action against the NRCC’s flagrant violations of federal campaign finance law.
Go read the whole thing. Bluestem had spotted an image of the NRCC's misleading Collin Peterson microsite in the CNN story that broke the news and explored the topic in NRCC creates fake Collin Peterson site "to lure" voters, CNN special investigations unit reports.
Ryan's post originally appeared on the American Constitution Society Blog. The Campaign Legal Center describes itself as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works in the areas of campaign finance and elections, political communication and government ethics." According to the Wikipedia entry for the group, the founder of the center took a leave of absence to serve as General Counsel to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign, while the group itself appears to object to dubious campaign practices on both sides of the aisle.
Screenshot: The NRCC can be as proud as it likes of this anti-Peterson site, but it violate federal law, an expert at the CLC writes.
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