• by Shankar Gupta , March 10, 2005

A prominent online political marketing firm for Democratic candidates, with some help from a group of bipartisan bloggers, will take concerns about potential new Federal Election Commission rules to the chairman on Friday. The regulations could extend campaign finance laws to blogs and other Internet sites.

Campaign finance laws normally limit political advertising, but in the past, the FEC took the position that those laws didn't apply to Internet campaigning. But late last year, a federal judge struck down the blanket Internet-activity exemption. Last week, FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith created a storm in the blogosphere when he stated that the commission might start regulating blogs or other Web sites that link to campaign Web sites, send out mass e-mails, and perform other possible fund-raising functions.

The firm organizing Friday's effort, Malchow Schlackman Hoppey & Cooper--agency of record for the Democratic National Convention and Senator John Kerry's online campaigns during the 2004 elections--assembled a bipartisan group of 10 political bloggers to sign a letter detailing worries about the possible new regulations. Signatories to the letter include high-profile blogosphere personalities like Markos Moulitas, writer of the left-wing site DailyKos.com and Michael Krempasky, author of the right-wing blog Redstate.org, who co-wrote the letter with Michael Bassik, the vice president for Internet advertising for MSHC. Malchow Schlackman plans to deliver the letter to chairman Scott Thomas when he speaks at George Washington University on Friday.

Online news sites like CNN.com or MSNBC.com are excluded from campaign finance regulation by the "media exemption" in those laws, which covers "any news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication." But some bloggers are worried that they wouldn't be covered under the media exemption.

The letter, obtained by OnlineMediaDaily, asks the commissioner of the FEC to allow blogs and online publications the same protections as print and broadcast media. "As bipartisan members of the online journalism, blogging, and advertising community, we ask that you grant blogs and online publications the same consideration and protection as broadcast media, newspapers, or periodicals by clearly including them under the Federal Election Commission's 'media exemption" rule,'" the letter said.

The letter stressed that the Internet is an integral part of U.S. civic life, and that the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, commonly known as McCain-Feingold, was not intended to regulate political speech on the Internet.

"The Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 [was] intended to prevent unlimited soft money contributions to federal candidates and party committees and regulate electioneering advertising, not to stifle free speech or grassroots activities on the Internet," the letter reads.

Thomas is speaking at George Washington University for its Politics Online conference on Friday. The open letter is expected to be delivered to him after his speech that day. The letter will also be posted to a Web site, www.onlinecoalition.com, where it will be publicly available to be signed.