Recently, in my Town a complaint was filed with the State for violations of the Campaign Finance Laws because a local woman made up a flyer with a list of "recommended" candidates that she distributed outside of primary polling places and through local churches and community centers. She signed her name as "publisher" of the list, but the complaint ( which made FRONT PAGE headlines) was made against ONE of the candidates on the list ( who won in the primary and is on the general election ballot). The complaint stated that the woman did not form a "campaign committee" and that the $25. or so that was spent printing the flyers was not reported by the candidate.
Now we have a very wealthy individual purchasing 2 & 1/2 full page ads against Obama,he signs his name, but is not registered as a political action committee, and gets away with it??
Private Political Ad
Tuesday's edition of the Press Journal was highly unusual in that "a concerned American citizen" placed 2½ pages of ads berating President Barack Obama for his record on jobs and the national debt."New Hampshire man placed 2+ pages of political ads in today's paper. Clue about his view: He refers to president as 'Barack Hussein Obama.he placed the same three ads in Sunday's edition of the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire.All three ads â full pages on 5A and 10A, and a half-page on 9A â included the man's name, Harold Oberkotter, and a contact address in New London, N.H.'"
It is bad enough that the Supreme Court ruling allowed the super rich and Multi- National Corporations to BUY elections, but at least there are SOME registration and regulation requirements.
Do we now have a "free for all" where anyone can say or do anything in their own name and get a "political ad discount"??