Ann Ravel,  California Fair Political Practices Commission

California FPPC to Consider Regulations for Reporting an Expenditure for Paid Online Communications

September 17, 2012 /

Ann Ravel1 California FPPCs Ann Ravel Backs Off Blogger Campaign Disclosure

California FPPC Chairwoman Ann Ravel

You remember the FLAP, that was resolved some months ago.

But, Ann Ravel and the California FPPC are considering new regulations which, by the way, will not apply to this year’s elections.

Here is the Agenda:

IP_Agenda_20120918_2

And, here is the Notice with background information:

Notice18421.5

Here is the exact language of the proposed regulation(s):

18421.5-1

Now, two influential California bloggers, one from the Left, Steve Maviglio, The California Majority Report and one from the Right, Jon Fleischman, The Flash Report have written a critical letter to the FPPC regarding the proposed regulation.

Here is the letter:

18421 5 Comment Letter 9-18-2012

You know I don’t know how I stand on the proposed regulation(s) and I will have to chew on this awhile. I certainly see both sides of this argument and there undoubtedly will have to be a legal analysis completed on whether the California FPPC really has the jurisdiction to regulate this type of speech.

My initial reaction is that the do not have the jurisdiction and FPPC Chairperson Ravel’s approach is an overreach of her and the FPPC’s Constitutional authority. Plus, the campaigns already have the obligation to report expenditures and because they may be hard to ferret out of the mass of data, is that really a blogger’s fault.

And, what about campaign workers tweeting or Facebook statusing a link – how about a photo at a campaign event? Do you have to file a form?

Then, there are the newspapers and their online reporters and columnists?

So, I will reserve FINAL judgment.

As I have never received any payment from a campaign for what I have published on my blog sites, this will have little or no affect on me – at least for now.

I look forward to the discussion of the issue, knowing full well that this will have NO effect on this year’s election and there will be court tests (if the regulation language is adopted) prior to 2014.