National Media on Coleman’s Ad Violation

Coleman’s violation of law in a 30-second spot, as MNpublius first reported, is now starting to be examined by the national media.

Politico and CBS News:

To receive the “lowest unit charge” – which can sometimes be half of typical rates — Coleman must include a disclaimer saying he approved the message. He also needs to broadcast his own likeness for a minimum of four seconds, according to the federal Communications Act of 1934.

He got the first part right — and got the second part half-right.

“Though the written disclaimer does appear for four seconds, Coleman’s image only appears for the last two seconds of the advertisement,” wrote Franken’s counsel Marc Elias of Perkins Coie, in a letter to 11 Minnesota station managers…

Huffington Post:

The penalty for such an infraction is that a campaign no longer qualifies for the lowest unit rate. Meaning that, in Minnesota, the cost of Coleman’s ads could rise 30 to 40 percent. While the Senator is now paying an estimated $210 a point, the price could go up to $295 — what the Republican and Democratic campaign committees pay. If he is penalized only retroactively for the transgression (as in, just for this ad), the tab could be in the tens-of-thousands of dollars range (there is no word how much money Coleman put behind this individual spot). If Coleman should be penalized for the remainder of the campaign and he spends another $4 million on television ads, the cost could be raised by more than $1 million.

…

In fact, Coleman’s oversight, officials say, may have violated two separate laws. The FCC Communications Act of 1934 is the one cited by the Franken campaign. In addition, however, the Federal Election Commission prohibits campaigns from taking contributions from corporations. If a candidate accepted a lower unit rate for a commercial that should have been charged at a greater price, it could constitute an in-kind contribution.

Mother Jones:

A Democratic media consultant with experience in Minnesota says that Coleman, who reported $5.6 million cash on hand at the last filing deadline but likely saw a boost due to the GOP convention being held in his state, can be expected to spend $4 to $5 million on television advertising for the rest of the campaign. Without the discount, Coleman will have to either dish out around $6 million for the same amount of air time or he will have to run fewer ads than he originally planned.

The consultant said that the image of Coleman, which he estimated was shown for 2.9 seconds, involves “a 1.1 second error that could cost him $1.1 million.”

UPDATE: Washington Post:

[Lawyer Marc] Elias said enforcing the length of the statement is no technicality. “It’s the law,” he said. “And it was specifically added to the law to make candidates stand by their ads.”

This is a costly situation for Coleman as stations are now forced to either follow the law and charge market value for his ad spots or risk punishment from the FCC. Noting by the kind of response I’m getting from a few contacts with television stations, it seems like they not going on the record yet on this. My guess is that stations will decide to follow the rule of the law.

At least this screwup is with Coleman’s campaign dollars instead of taxpayer dollars this time.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is a copy of the letter sent to stations.