Groups Push Legal Limits in Advertising

A recent television commercial sponsored by an Iowa-based nonprofit group, American Future Fund, attacking Representative Bobby Bright, an Alabama Democrat, could hardly have been more explicit in its closing: "On Election Day," the narrator said, "take the right path. Vote against Bobby Bright." Such a direct appeal to voters might seem unremarkable, but actually it is an example of an important new tool afforded to outside interest groups that is reshaping the contours of this year's midterm elections.

Before the Supreme Court's landmark campaign finance ruling in January, nonprofit groups like American Future Fund, able to accept unrestricted contributions from individuals and corporations, had been limited to broadcasting "issue ads" and barred from "express advocacy," advertisements that directly urge voters to elect or defeat specific candidates. Now, in the aftermath of the court's ruling in the Citizens United case, third-party groups in growing numbers have been flocking to this sharper form of messaging in the closing weeks of the campaign. In the process, however, the groups are, as never before, pushing the legal limits that enable them to preserve the anonymity of their donors. They are doing so just as Democratic officials and campaign finance watchdogs -- alarmed by the gushers of secret money pouring into races, largely in favor of Republicans — have stepped up their calls for investigations by regulators.