In an interview with BNA (subscription required), campaign finance reformer Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 went on the offensive against the FEC’s new
“„“Under the new FEC regulation, a Representative or Senator, or other congressional candidate, will be able to sit down with a corporate executive, draft an ad promoting his or her campaign and have the executive’s corporation pay for broadcasting the ad when and where the candidate wants—and none of this constitutes ‘coordination’ in the view of the FEC, so long as the ad is run after the candidate’s primary and more than 90 days before the election, and does not expressly say ‘vote for’ the candidate or its functional equivalent,” Wertheimer’s statementsaid. “The FEC’s regulation, in short, defies common sense.” [...]
“„The effect of the FEC rule is to leave a “donut hole” for coordination in congressional campaigns that “even the agency recognizes is inappropriate and impermissible for presidential elections,” Wertheimer said. “That distinction makes no sense and there is no legal rationale for authorizing coordination in congressional races that is made illegal in presidential races.”