Bauer on WRTL

Bob Bauer has two entries on his blog reviewing Rick Hasen's WRTL article... as one would expect, he finds flaws in his theoretical and practical analysis. And, as one would usually expect, i find the truth somewhere in the middle. I suspect we'll see a lot of ads that fall within the Supreme Court's newly created safe harbor addressing some kind of legislative issue that might also be seen to have campaign impacts. How prevalent these ads become remains to be seen... ultimately the ads will have to achieve their desired effect on the ad consumer. If they work in the way the ad producers want, you can bet you'll see more of them. In other words, the focus groups (i.e. John and Jane Doe turning dials in some windowless conference room in Des Moines and Manchester) will ultimately decide how many ads that have electoral impact see the light of day.