FEC Approves Two Advisory Opinions and Adopts Meeting Calendar

FEC Approves Two Advisory Opinions and Adopts Meeting Calendar

Washington – At its open meeting today, the Federal Election Commission (FEC/ the Commission) approved two Advisory Opinions and adopted a calendar of upcoming FEC meetings dates.

In Advisory Opinion (AO) 2007-33, the Commission unanimously concluded that Club for Growth PAC (CFG PAC) must include the spoken “stand-by-your-ad” disclaimers required by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (the Act) in its ten or fifteen second television advertisements that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified federal candidate.  The Commission determined that CFG PAC’s ads were public communications subject to the Act’s disclaimer requirements, and spoken disclaimers could not be omitted.  In discussion, Chairman McGahn noted that this AO only concerns non-candidate ads, and should not be read to impact past Commission decisions regarding disclaimers for candidate ads such as in AO 2004-10 (Metro Networks) or text messages such as in AO 2002-09 (Target Wireless).

In AO 2008-05, the FEC, by a vote of 5 to 1, concluded that Holland & Knight LLP (the Firm) is deemed a partnership under the Act.  Therefore, the Firm may not treat the Holland & Knight Committee for Effective Government, a nonconnected committee, as a separate segregated fund and provide unlimited administrative and financial support to it.  The Firm is organized as a limited liability partnership (LLP) under Florida law, but recently elected to classify itself as an association taxable as a corporation for federal tax purposes.  The Commission concluded that Holland & Knight is a partnership for the purposes of the federal campaign finance law because it is an LLP under Florida law.

The Commission also approved a calendar of upcoming meeting dates through the rest of the year.  Additional information regarding upcoming meetings, agendas and documents is available on the FEC website at:  http://www.fec.gov/agenda/agendas.shtml. 

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency that administers and enforces federal campaign finance laws. The FEC has jurisdiction over the financing of campaigns for the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, the Presidency and the Vice Presidency. Established in 1975, the FEC is composed of six Commissioners who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

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