Making political advertising more transparent

A new rule by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission would bring some much-needed transparency into political advertising funded by third parties.

Under the current rules, disclosure of the funding source is required only when the campaign communication contains specific phrases advocating the election or defeat of a candidate - such as "vote for" or "oppose" or "elect."

Dan Schnur, the new FPPC chair who is a veteran political consultant and analyst, said the "magic words" requirement is not only easy to get around - it's impractical. He noted that few candidates use such direct phrases in their own advertising.

"It's a ham-handed and not particularly convincing way to build support," Schnur said. "I don't think I ever worked on a candidate's campaign in which any of our advertisements used those words and phrases."

The new rule will take effect after the election, because Schnur and his FPPC colleagues did not think it would be fair to change the rules in the middle of an election season.

These third-party ads for and against candidates are not only prominent in the high-profile races - such as labor's multimillion-dollar attacks on Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman or the insurance industry's burgeoning assault on Dave Jones, the Democratic nominee for insurance commissioner - they are becoming increasingly prevalent in legislative races. It is not unusual for so-called independent expenditures to exceed the outlays of the campaigns themselves in contested races for state Senate and Assembly.

Schnur called it "the loophole that has grown large enough to eat the entire law."

The new law closes that loophole by requiring disclosure of funding sources in campaign messages that appear within 60 days of an election.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has broadly guaranteed the free speech right of corporations, labor unions and other interests to spend freely on campaigns, the public has right to know who is spending big dollars to influence an election. This new rule strikes the right balance of rights.

For more election-related news and information, visit our California Elections 2010 page.

This article appeared on page A - 13 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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