DISCLOSE Act, Citizens United Seen Changing Little in Political Ad Spending
With the lower unit cost provision stripped from the Senate version of the DISCLOSE Act, broadcasters’ concerns that the bill would sap political ad revenue this year have largely been put to rest, industry officials said. As the Senate considers a vote for cloture on the bill Tuesday, some in the industry and Congress question its effectiveness and purpose. The Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling, which the bill was introduced in response to, probably won’t lead to any huge influx of corporate spending on political ads, industry officials said. “You don’t see necessarily a flood now as a result of this decision,” said Kyle Roberts, president of Smart Media Group, a political media planning group: “What you see is an industry that’s probably going to spend 10-20 percent more than it did last cycle, just like it has been trending."
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Several factors will probably limit the amount of money companies will be willing to spend directly on political ads, said broadcast lawyer Clifford Harrington of Pillsbury Winthrop. They probably will be afraid to upset or alienate customers by taking a position on a candidate or issue, he said. Companies will be afraid of backing a losing candidate or attacking a winner, he said. And firms still have political action committees available to them as ways to spend money, he said.
Money will still come in to races, especially ones that remain competitive close to election day, said Roberts. That could drive up rates for candidates themselves as ad inventory on TV stations becomes scarce, he said. “All the macro factors for this being a record blowout year are still there, and they were probably there before the Citizens United case,” said President Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group. The ruling will make it easier for companies that want to get involved to spend, but some may still sit on the sidelines, he said. Companies are probably saying to themselves, “'We don’t want to target somebody, have them win, and have them know we targeted them,'” he said.
A Republican leader decried Tuesday’s pending action on the bill. “The mere suggestion that a bill designed to save politicians’ jobs should take precedent over helping millions of Americans find work is an embarrassing indictment of Democrats’ priorities,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “The DISCLOSE Act seeks to protect unpopular Democrat politicians by silencing their critics and exempting their campaign supporters from an all out attack on the First Amendment. In the process, the authors of the bill have decided to trade our Constitutional rights away in a backroom deal."
The bill, which is not expected to get the 60 votes needed to end debate, could offer up new talking points for Democrats seeking office this fall, Concept Capital analyst Paul Gallant wrote investors Monday. “Why schedule a cloture vote if you are shy of 60 votes?” he said. “To give the bill closure and give a nice political talking point for the elections a la ’the Republicans voted to keep big money in politics.'”