Ron Paul Takes Ads To New Heights

Saturday, December 8, 2007

MESSAGE ON A BLIMP

Ron Paul Takes Ads To New Heights

If folks in New Hampshire have not had enough political advertising on their televisions, on their car radios, or in their mailboxes, soon they will be able to simply tilt their heads back and look up.

That's because supporters of Rep. Ron Paul's Republican campaign for president are leasing space on a blimp that will quietly float across the White Mountains beginning Dec. 15. Whether the unorthodox advertising technique proves worthwhile for the campaign efforts of Paul (Tex.) during the frigid (and cloudy) winter days in New Hampshire remains to be seen. But the blimp has caught the eye of campaign finance experts, who have questions about the legality of its financial arrangements.

The blimp is being run by Liberty Political Advertising, a for-profit company formed just for this purpose. The company is offering Paul supporters the chance to sponsor portions of the blimp's journey, ranging from $10 for one minute of "air time" to $1 million for 10 weeks. On the Ron Paul blimp's Web site, the organizers describe this arrangement as "the best of both worlds, no limits and virtually no regulations."

"The ad is on a blimp, but you can also think of it as a floating billboard," the group's Web site says. "It will fly for six hours per day generating advertising and publicity while on the ground as well as in the air. Blimp sponsors, the local media and nearby residents will be able to gather at landing sites to tour the blimp. Those with tickets will board for rides. Informal blimp parties will be organized at scheduled stops around the country as the blimp makes its way to key destinations for maximum public exposure."

Bradley Smith, a former Federal Election Commission chairman, is representing the group and says the for-profit arrangement is no different than if a company formed to sell T-shirts or coffee mugs with a candidate's name on it. Each contributor to the effort would be making his or her own independent expenditure. If that contribution is greater than $250, the donor will have to report it to the FEC. But there are no limits under this plan, which concerns some campaign finance experts.

Fred Wertheimer, who runs the campaign finance advocacy group Democracy 21, said that if the point of the enterprise is to influence the presidential race, it should be set up as a political action committee. That would mean not only disclosing the names of the donors, but limiting individuals to no more than $5,000 in contributions in one year.

"Is this a legitimate advertising company operating in the normal course of business? Or is it a sham operation created to evade the campaign finance laws by posing as an advertising company?" Wertheimer asked. "That's the issue here."

Campaign finance expert Rick Hasen, who teaches at Loyola Law School in California, said he agrees, and expects that the FEC will look into just that question. But probably not before the blimp gets aloft.

According to the Ron Paul Blimp Web site, a flight plan has been drafted that will send the airship over the District on Monday, and New York on Wednesday, before heading north.

-- Matthew Mosk

'TAKING A STAND'

Edwards Fires Back On Social Security

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- One day after Hillary Clinton accused her Democratic rivals of playing into Republican hands by offering plans to shore up Social Security, John Edwards fired back by saying that withholding ideas for Social Security overhaul showed a lack of leadership.

"What people want in a presidential candidate . . . is leadership," Edwards told reporters after speaking to several hundred voters in a high school cafeteria here. "Leadership is showing where you believe the country needs to go. We're not running for the Congress. We're running for the presidency. What people expect from us is to lead on these issues . . . Taking a position and taking a stand is leadership."

Was he suggesting that Clinton was not showing leadership? he was asked. "I'm saying I am," he answered.

Social Security has emerged as a flash point in the Democratic debate. Edwards has proposed raising the cap on income that is taxed for Social Security, which stands at $97,500, possibly allowing for a "doughnut hole" of income over $97,500 that is not taxed but then taxing income over $200,000. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has also said he would favor raising the cap, on some occasions endorsing a doughnut-hole approach and on some occasions referring simply to lifting the cap.

Clinton has declined to lay out specific options for shoring up the Social Security system, saying that she would start by restoring fiscal discipline and then convene a bipartisan commission to study a long-term fix. Her rivals have seized on this in recent months as a sign of a lack of candor and forthrightness, but her campaign has fought back by accusing rivals of accepting Republican talking points suggesting that Social Security is in worse shape than it actually is.

On Wednesday, Clinton went further than she had before in defending her approach on Social Security, calling it a "mistake" for her rivals to offer specific ideas for revision.

"Most of my opponents are more than happy to throw out all their ideas," she said in Gilford, N.H., according to the Concord Monitor, in response to a question about whether she would consider more payroll taxes on higher-income earners. "I just know -- maybe it's because I'm a student of history and I've been studying this -- I know that eventually you've got to have a bipartisan commission. That's the only way we're going to resolve this."

-- Alec MacGillis

'AMERICA'S STRENGTH'

Romney Says He'd Boost Military Budget

DES MOINES -- Mitt Romney said Friday said that as president, he would increase the nation's military budget $50 billion to $60 billion a year "in order to demonstrate America's strength to the world."

In an appearance at the Fort Des Moines Museum, Romney touched briefly on his Thursday speech on faith in public life, but he told reporters he could not judge how effective it had been in blunting the criticism of his Mormon religion from some Christian conservatives.

It was not a political address," Romney insisted.

-- David Broder