Norm Coleman’s $1 Million Mistake?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Norm.jpg Republican Senator Norm Coleman may pay a big price for a small violation of federal elections law.

Coleman, who is locked in a reelection battle with comedian and author Al Franken, is running a television ad in Minnesota that fails to meet the requirements of what is known as the “stand by your ad” law. The provision says any political ad aired within two months of election day that mentions the name of an opponent must close with a four-second image of the candidate running the ad, along with his or her name and a statement that he or she approved and paid for the ad.

In 2006, then-Senator Rick Santorum got in hot water in Pennsylvania for violating this provision. Santorum put his image at the beginning of the ad and the written statement of approval and sponsorship at the end. This slip-up threatened to disqualify Santorum from receiving the heavily discounted advertising rate — known as the “lowest unit charge” or “lowest unit rate” — commonly offered to political candidates.

Now Coleman faces similar trouble.

The 30-second ad, which touts Coleman’s credentials and criticizes Franken for having governed “nothing,” closes with an image of Norm Coleman that is only 2 to 3 seconds long. As first reported by mnpublius.com, the Franken campaign’s lawyers have sent a letter to television networks airing the Coleman ad that informs the networks of the violation: “Coleman and his campaign have forfeited their entitlement to the lowest unit charge for the duration of the campaign. Now and until Election Day, your station should charge Coleman and his campaign committee the same rate for broadcast time that it charges non-political advertisers for comparable use.”

The discounted rate reserved for politicians is commonly 30-40 percent lower than what a TV network charges regular advertisers, with the discount getting larger as the election nears. A Democratic media consultant with experience in Minnesota says that Coleman, who reported $5.6 million cash on hand at the last filing deadline but likely saw a boost due to the GOP convention being held in his state, can be expected to spend $4 to $5 million on television advertising for the rest of the campaign. Without the discount, Coleman will have to either dish out around $6 million for the same amount of air time or he will have to run fewer ads than he originally planned.

The consultant said that the image of Coleman, which he estimated was shown for 2.9 seconds, involves “a 1.1 second error that could cost him $1.1 million.”

Enforcement of small provisions of federal elections law is often tricky, because the Federal Elections Commission and Federal Communications Commission frequently move slowly. When they did act in the Santorum situation, they declined to force the TV stations involved to raise prices. Ultimately, says the media consultant, enforcement of the law may come down to the legal staff at the stations themselves.

Even if lawyers at local TV stations are not eager to irritate a sitting senator from their home state, the error promises to cost Coleman time and energy in a campaign in which he can afford little.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate