RedState.org To Congress: Exempt Blogs From Campaign Finance Laws

Political blogger Michael Krempasky, director of the highly trafficked RedState.org, is scheduled to go before Congress today to urge the enactment of legislation that would exempt communications over the Internet from regulation under campaign finance laws.

"Make no mistake: there can be no effective political regulation of the blogosphere without destroying the freedom that makes this medium great," reads the prepared remarks, which are available on his blog.

Krempasky will go before the U.S. Congress Committee on House Administration, which is considering the pending "Online Freedom of Speech Act." The bill, if passed, would make clear that the Internet is a form of media.

Currently, the Federal Election Commission is considering how to apply campaign finance rules to the Web. In theory, campaign finance limits could affect whether bloggers can link to campaign Web sites or accept political advertising. But, because the media is exempt from such limits, the rules wouldn't apply if blogs are considered to be "media."

Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) introduced the Online Freedom of Speech Act into the House of Representatives in response to the blogstorm created by the FEC's proposed rulemaking, which suggested that blogs could indeed be subject to the same regulation as many other campaign activities. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a similar bill in the Senate. The bill simply adds a sentence exempting the Internet from regulation under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (recently amended by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act.)

Krempasky, along with a handful of other bloggers and net-savvy political consultants--including the authors of popular sites like Wizbangblog.com, MyDD.com, and MichelleMalkin.com--in March formed the Online Coalition to oppose regulation of political speech and advertising on the blogosphere.

Krempasky intends to tell Congress that regulation would do precisely the opposite of what is intended--regulation, he will say, would create an environment where only the wealthy could effectively communicate their messages. "Regulations that would create legal obstacles, burdens, thresholds and loopholes for every individual blogger would generate a minefield that only the wealthy or the lawyers could navigate," reads his prepared statement.

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