Panter: Supreme Court Decision Makes Voice of Special Interests Overpowering

PANTER:  SUPREME COURT DECISION MAKES VOICE OF SPECIAL INTERESTS OVERPOWERING

Reopening 'Issue Ad' Loophole Will Only Harm Public Discourse

(SHREWSBURY) - Assemblyman Mike Panter today warned that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling allowing issue advertising timed to influence elections will adversely affect the way campaigns are run nationwide to the public's detriment.

Panter said the court's decision to allow issue advertising in the months leading up to an election significantly weakened a key provision of the landmark McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance legislation.

"This decision allowing the special interests increased power to direct the focus of political campaigns through issue advertising is a blow to voters everywhere," said Panter (D-Monmouth).  "Voters - not special interest money - should direct the public discourse of candidates."

The court ruled 5-4 today in favor of a Wisconsin special interest group, saying the group should have been permitted to air issue specific ads during the last two months of the 2004 election cycle.  The ads urged voters to contact their U.S. senators - one of whom was up for reelection - urging them to stop blocking the appointment of a presidential judicial nominee.

The court's decision undoes a portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation that prohibited the airing of issue advertisements that mention a candidate by name 30 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election.

Panter said the ruling would allow special interests to channel unlimited amounts of special interest money into the election process via issue advertising - advertisements specifically designed to promote a specific issue in order to cast candidates in either a positive or a negative light without explicitly urging their election or defeat.

"This ruling will only feed into people's beliefs that they are powerless to influence elections," said Panter.  "The Supreme Court has effectively said the colossal budgets of special interests will now direct national politics and the public be damned."

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