Kind of. The PAC could spend as much money as it wanted, but it couldn’t give above a certain amount directly to the candidate. Which they took issue with now because the candidate themselves gets a discounted rate for ad buys and the Democrats were getting more and more of their money from small dollar donations.
So the Republican PACs would spend say 100m and get the same amount of ads a Democratic candidate could buy with like 25m (those almost certainly aren’t the actual numbers, idk the actual discounted rate the candidates actually get. That’s just an example to illustrate the concept)
It’s part of the FCC guidelines. It’s called the Lowest Unit Charge Rule, and it says that for the 45 days before a Primary and 60 days before a General Election TV broadcasters and radio stations must offer qualified political candidates the lowest rate they can possibly offer to an entity for a similar slot.
It’s meant to be so a station can’t like play favorites and charge one candidate a much higher rate than the other. Thereby putting their thumb on the scale for the candidate they give the cheaper rate to. The guidelines just only apply to the candidate directly and not to private ads done on behalf of the candidate like those from a super PAC.
There were limits before?
Kind of. The PAC could spend as much money as it wanted, but it couldn’t give above a certain amount directly to the candidate. Which they took issue with now because the candidate themselves gets a discounted rate for ad buys and the Democrats were getting more and more of their money from small dollar donations.
So the Republican PACs would spend say 100m and get the same amount of ads a Democratic candidate could buy with like 25m (those almost certainly aren’t the actual numbers, idk the actual discounted rate the candidates actually get. That’s just an example to illustrate the concept)
Why would TV stations give the candidate a discounted rate over a pac?
It’s part of the FCC guidelines. It’s called the Lowest Unit Charge Rule, and it says that for the 45 days before a Primary and 60 days before a General Election TV broadcasters and radio stations must offer qualified political candidates the lowest rate they can possibly offer to an entity for a similar slot.
It’s meant to be so a station can’t like play favorites and charge one candidate a much higher rate than the other. Thereby putting their thumb on the scale for the candidate they give the cheaper rate to. The guidelines just only apply to the candidate directly and not to private ads done on behalf of the candidate like those from a super PAC.
Thanks!
I see. Fascists gonna fasc, I suppose.