Blogger who filed rejected FEC complaint against Kos may appeal
The blogger who filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against Daily Kos says he may appeal Tuesday's FEC ruling on the matter, which found the popular left-leaning site did not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act as charged. A lawyer for the blog, however, dismissed the claims as a fantasy.
"I'm not entirely surprised," said John Bambenek, a research programmer at the University of Illinois who submitted the complaint, in a Wednesday interview with RAW STORY. "[The FEC] doesn't want to get into all the drama of blogs."
In his official filing letter to the FEC on July 23, Bambenek had alleged that Kos Media, LLC., which operates Daily Kos, was a political action committee that had "failed to register with the FEC or file mandatory reports with the FEC."
"It is my belief that this organization operates as a political committee," Bambenek wrote in the letter, going on to assert that Daily Kos "provides a gift of free advertising and candidate media services" amounting to more than $1,000 a year, one of the benchmarks the FEC uses to define political action committees.
He also wrote that Daily Kos existed "with the purpose of electing Democrats to office at the federal level," citing blog posts from site-founder Markos Moulitsas and others that Bambenek says meet additional FEC-stated criteria for political action committee designation.
Reacting to the commission's unanimous decision--which "found no reason to believe Kos Media, DailyKos.com, or Markos Moulitsas Zuniga violated federal campaign finance law"--Bambenek told RAW STORY that the FEC didn't address his fundamental complaint.
"I asked a particular question and they answered a different one. They just ruled that blog posts don't constitute a donation," he said, acknowledging that the FEC had already given its opinion in 2006 as to whether favorable commentary about a candidate, published by an independent website, amounted to a campaign contribution.
"My question was: Can a political action committee avoid FEC disclosure rules simply by organizing online?" Bambenek continued. "What I did was ask about a group that self-identified as having the sole purpose of electing Democrats."
Asked whether that distinction constituted the formation of a political action committee, he said "They're saying they're a duck--let's call them a duck."
But Adam Bonin, an attorney with the law firm of Cozen O'Connor who represents Daily Kos, told RAW STORY that the FEC decision follows a clearly established precedent.
Pointing to a 2005 FEC advisory opinion which concluded that a website's costs for providing news and commentary are covered under a "press exception," Bonin said that the commission "intended to protect, and in fact did protect, exactly what Daily Kos does."
"I think this complaint was based on a fantasy--as to what the law was, as to what some of the relevant facts were, and the means by which this would be addressed by the FEC," Bonin said. Concerning Tuesday's ruling, he added "This got handled and it got handled quickly."
Bambenek, however, insists that Daily Kos--and perhaps other political blogs as well--meet the necessary requirements for FEC regulation.
Responding to a question about Redstate, a leading conservative blog whose directors state is "dedicated to the construction of a Republican majority in the United States," Bambenek alluded to a gray area within the law.
"There are no bright line distinctions here," he said, speculating about the point a blog crosses over into what he defines as political action committee territory. "On its face, Redstate gets close...but there are lots of ways to build a majority without directly calling for the election [of Republicans]," he went on to say, adding that Redstate's mission was more akin to an "advocacy of ideas."
Redstate co-founder Mike Krempasky previously criticized Bambenek's Daily Kos complaint, calling it "a sorry attempt to use government institutions to silence opponents" and saying that "the stunt has zero chance of success."
Bambenek remains convinced he still has a case, and maintains a poll on his blog asking readers if Daily Kos should be subject to the FEC. To date, 60 percent have responded "No."
Although he says he hasn't yet decided whether to press his complaint any further, Bambenek suggests that it would be an "easy appeal."
"It's an option," he said, "and I'm considering it."
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