It’s a situation that doesn’t come up often, but when it does, it’s a national embarrassment. In 2006, Marilyn Musgrave forgot to put four special words at the end of her ad. Rick Santorum did the same. Both could not legally get the “lowest unit charge” for ad buys for the rest of the election cycle. In many cases, that means the rate is double.
What did Team Coleman do? Well in an ad that directly referenced another candidate for the same office, they failed to show Coleman’s likeness and approval for at least four seconds. Here’s the law:
(A) In the case of a candidate for Federal office, such candidate shall not be entitled to receive the rate under paragraph (1)(A) for the use of any broadcasting station unless the candidate provides written certification to the broadcast station that the candidate (and any authorized committee of the candidate) shall not make any direct reference to another candidate for the same office, in any broadcast using the rights and conditions of access under this chapter, unless such reference meets the requirements of subparagraph (C) or (D).
…
(C) A candidate meets the requirements of this subparagraph if, in the case of a television broadcast, at the end of such broadcast there appears simultaneously, for a period no less than 4 seconds—
Again, the ad directly references Al Franken and does not show Norm Coleman for four seconds.
I contacted the Franken campaign earlier today about this and they just confirmed to me now that they are indeed informing television stations about this violation. This is a huge, costly embarrassment for the Coleman campaign.
UPDATE: PDF indicating that Coleman is now certainly ineligible for the “lowest unit charge.”
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That’s gotta hurt
Wow.. isn’t this why you pay the ad firm the big bucks?
Er.. really. Stupid mistake that’s going to cost ‘em.
so… what kinds of penalties are dictated for something like this?
You do realize that rule are meant to be followed. If the Republican Party and Norm Coleman are incapable of following the rules in something as simple as a TV advertisement, how are we to expect them to follow the rules of governing. I for one as a completely disinterested bystander think that it would only be fair to make the Coleman campaign pay the going rates for advertising since they are incapable of doing what every other candidate has been doing in the state of Minnesota.
(Ha Ha Ha Ha… LOL… ROFL… what do you expect from a Dallas Ad agency faking it in Minnesota?)
Sandy Keith a a senile old fool. He’s been like this since Rudy Perpich got pissed off at him for the election decision when Grunseth dropped out and Carlson got in. (That was an interesting election, remember kids, Timmy Pawlenty was Grunseth’s campaign manager.) He decided to take out his frustration with Perpich by saying he was a democrat but doing everything with republicans. The sad thing is he’s just like Lieberman.
I followed the link to the article on Musgrave and Santorum. What I got out of it was that there wasn’t a lot of legal precedent and that stations made up their own mind (and even changed their mind) as to whether they were following the law or not. If the station violates this, all they have to fear is the toothless GOP FCC.
“Wow.. isn’t this why you pay the ad firm the big bucks?”
Considering the “quality” of Coleman’s ads so far, I think he failed to pay the “big bucks”…too bad for Norm.
Images of green screens are popping in my head for some reason.
What fun, Aaron. Nice catch.
Following the rules is very important. However, the statement is there. Don’t we have bigger issues to deal with? I don’t think 1 second is going to matter to the common person. What does matter is character. Franken is a charcter, but doesn’t have any.
I wonder how long until National Media takes note?
@ shadow.
Let me get this straight: The rules are important, but only when democrats break them. Did I get that right?
Shadow:
This is relevant to the race, which is why it’s being talked about. It’s going to cost Coleman A LOT of money. It also shows a lack of capability to follow simple rules by his campaign. This issue isn’t as big as, say, health care, but that doesn’t mean it is irrelevant. This is going to affect the race fiscally, if not any other way, which is why it’s news.
The ad embedded on this page now seems to carry the 4-second Norm Coleman tag at the end. Was it changed?
Nice shout out for MNPublius on the Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/11/norm-colemans-possibly-mi_n_125762.html
Excellent. A million extra bucks that Republicans have to pay for advertising is a million less bucks for them to spend planting 5-year olds and WMDs on Obama.
CherrieBomber in California, This is the same old campaign ploys that the Republicans trot out to slime and smear their opponents/think the phony sexism to that Creature Sarah Palin. It’s okay to slime Hillary but not Sarah. Double standards. I hope that the voting sheep in this great Country will not be fooled again. I have listened to Al on Air America and he is very intelligent and articulate. Norm is a panderer and hopefully will be voted out of office.
One concerned Patriot in California!!!
CherrieBomber in California, This is the same old campaign ploys that the Republicans trot out to slime and smear their opponents/think the phony sexism to that Creature Sarah Palin. It’s okay to slime Hillary but not Sarah. Double standards. I hope that the voting sheep in this great Country will not be fooled again. I have listened to Al on Air America and he is very intelligent and articulate. Norm is a panderer and hopefully will be voted out of office.
One concerned Patriot in California!!!
CherrieBomber in California,
Here’s something to think about. We all know that politics is a dirty contract sport: With the Democrats it’s like taking a dose of arsenic, might make you a little sick, however it won’t KILL YOU. With the Republicans it like taking a dose of cyanide, and it will KILL YOU DEAD!!
A dose for thought.
It took the party 4 decades to get over the Keith-Rolvaag split and now we get this.
One can only wonder what Sandy would be saying now if he hadn’t gotten DFL party endorsement.