Christopher Shays: “First off, we do not ban anything. This is just totally a misstatement. The issue is whether it is an issue ad or a…”

“First off, we do not ban anything. This is just totally a misstatement. The issue is whether it is an issue ad or a campaign ad. The issue is whether you come under campaign rules or do not come under campaign rules. First and foremost, Mr. Chairman, we ban soft money. I do not think that there is any amendment to try to deal with that, so that is off the table. The issue is dealing with sham issue ads that are truly campaign ads. It is not that they do not have a right to do it, but they are campaign ads and should come under the campaign rules. Organizations and labor unions and other interest groups have tried to get around the campaign laws by simply pretending that they are issue ads, by not saying vote for or vote against, but mentioning the name of the candidate and showing a picture. We have the bright line test expanded by the name of the picture or the name of the candidate. That is for radio and TV. This does not ban it based on the issue of 60 days before an election.”