Democrats ask Supreme Court to bar GOP from cheaper campaign ad prices
A group of Democratic congressional candidates urged the supreme Court to reject an emergency petition by Republican campaign committees seeking to overturn a ruling by the 4th Circuit Court. The ruling found that coordinated advertising buys between political parties adn joint fundraising committees do not qualify for lower candidate ad rates, a decision that the GOP committees argued should be reversed to allow cheaper ad purchases. The Democratic candidates contended that federal law permits lower rates only for legally qualified candidates, not for parties or groups working in coordination with candidates. They also accused the Department of Justice of reversing its previous stance on the issue. The GOP attorneys argued that the court’s decision complicates campaign strategies ahead of the midterm elections, as it disrupts established rules for political advertising rates. The dispute centers around the interpretation of regulations designed to determine which entities qualify for lower ad rates and the impact of recent supreme Court decisions on campaign spending and speech rights. The Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling on the emergency petition.
A group of Democratic congressional candidates urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject an effort by Republican Senate and House campaign committees to halt an appeals court ruling finding coordinated advertisement buys between political parties and joint fundraising committees are not entitled to cheaper candidate rates.
The National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court earlier this week asking the court to halt the order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and restore the cheap ad buy rates for parties and joint fundraising committees. Lawyers for Democratic Senate candidates Sherrod Brown, Jon Ossoff, and Roy Cooper, and Democratic House candidate Kristen McDonald Rivet, argued in a filing Thursday that the high court should reject the emergency petition, leaving in place the 4th Circuit’s ruling.
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The NRSC and NRCC scored a major victory at the Supreme Court earlier this year, when the high court opened the floodgates to unlimited coordinated spending between political parties and candidates, striking down the previous limits as violating the First Amendment.
The ruling was a major victory in the short term for the GOP over the Democratic Party because of the Republican National Committee’s significant cash advantage going into the midterm elections at a party level. The 4th Circuit’s ruling, which Republicans are challenging with the emergency petition, was viewed as a key win for Democrats because while the Democratic National Committee has significantly less money than the RNC, Democratic candidates have dramatically outraised Republican candidates in several of the most closely watched races.
The coalition of Democratic candidates argued to the Supreme Court that federal law only allows legally qualified candidates to purchase ads at the lower rates, rather than including political parties and other groups working in coordination with the candidate. The Democratic candidates also claimed the Department of Justice was reversing its arguments it previously made before the high court.
“Just last year, the Solicitor General assured this Court that this provision ‘require[s] broadcasters to charge low rates for candidate spending, but not for party spending — whether coordinated or independent.’ But three months ago, the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau reversed course and issued a ‘Public Notice’ that instructs broadcasters, under threat of hefty penalties, to offer lowest unit charge to two categories of non-candidate committees: political parties engaged in coordinated expenditures, and joint fundraising committees with non-candidate members,” the lawyers for the Democratic candidates said.
“The Fourth Circuit correctly held that the Public Notice is contrary to law, and there is no basis for this Court to stay that judgment,” the Democratic candidates’ lawyers added, urging the Supreme Court not to rule in favor of the GOP.
The NRCC and NRSC said in their petition earlier this week that the appeals court ruling two months before the hotly contested midterm elections has thrown the committees’ campaign spending strategy into disarray.
“In the midst of election season, a divided Fourth Circuit panel just rewrote longstanding rules about preferential broadcast rates for political ads. At the behest of Democratic candidates who said those rules favor their electoral opponents, the panel majority blew through two jurisdictional bars to vacate a staff-level public notice that is neither final nor an agency action,” lawyers for the NRCC and NRSC said.
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“The order splits with multiple circuits, ‘restrict[s] political speech in the sensitive period leading up to an election,’ and ignores this Court’s recent instruction on agency finality,” the NRCC and NRSC said in their brief, adding that they had already budgeted for ad buys with the cheaper rates.
The Supreme Court does not have a set timeline to issue a ruling on the emergency petition.
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