What do the new FEC regulations do?
The FEC’s new regulations were to designed to fill the holes found by the Shays court. Primarily, the new FEC rules place restrictions on paid Internet political advertisements: paid political advertisements are now subject to campaign spending limits and other restrictions on candidates. In addition, paid political advertisements are required to carry disclaimers, informing readers that ads were paid for by a party or candidate. Other proposed regulations, such as disclosures for “political spam” and for blogging funded by federal candidates, were rejected. Bloggers wishing to promote one candidate or criticize another without compensation can continue to do so without any new restraints. Even bloggers who are paid by a candidate, party, or political action committee (PAC) to promote a candidate or cause – in non-advertisement form – are not be required to disclose this fact themselves. (The candidate or party, however, would.) Also of interest to bloggers is the FEC’s explicit extens
