[EL] Obama Using JFC Funds for Campaign Ads?

[Matthew Sanderson]

Obama for America released an ad called “Stretch” a few days ago.  I
noticed this morning, though, that the same ad features a “Paid for by
Obama Victory Fund 2012” disclaimer in its paid placements at CNN.com,
DailyShow.com, and other sites.  (See screen shot attached.)

It appears at first blush, then, that the Obama folks are using gross Joint
Fundraising Committee proceeds (rather than just Obama for America’s
allocable share of net proceeds) to pay for campaign ads.  In other words,
they seem to be spending money designated for party committees on the
presidential campaign without the spending counting against party
coordinated spending limits (and without the original donations to the JFC
exceeding the campaign’s $2,500 contribution limit).  My guess is that Bob
Bauer would say this is a “fundraising cost" permissibly paid from JFC
funds, but the version I viewed this morning contains no “solicitation”
within the ad itself and it links to a "tax calculator" webpage that
contains no solicitation, other than a small, generic “donate” button in
the upper-left corner.  (The ad leads to this site:
http://www.barackobama.com/om-tax-calculator?source=OM2012_PR_GenMar_MTVN_36_VA--EntireState_GeneralMarket-Stretch-30seconds-nocompanion-OVF&utm_medium=om2012&utm_campaign=pr_GenMar&utm_source=MTVN&utm_content=GeneralMarket-Stretch-30seconds-nocompanion-OVF)


As part of an academic project I'm now starting to wrap-up, I've done a
fairly extensive look at the different activities of JFCs historically, and
I know I've never seen JFC funds used to bankroll a campaign's ads like
this.  Anyone come across examples of this in the past?  Any thoughts on
the permissibility of this activity? Could the ad be a "fundraising cost"
simply by linking to a site with a "donate" button?


Matthew Sanderson
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