Two national Republican campaign arms want the Supreme Court to quickly step in and allow them to run political ads at a lower rate ahead of the midterm election.
In an emergency application made public Monday, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee urged the justices to halt a lower court decision that blocked them from getting favorable advertising rates that go into effect Friday.
The NRCC and NRSC should get a rate reduction on coordinated ad buys, the application says. “But if the Fourth Circuit’s order remains in effect, they won’t.”
The campaign arms also plan to appeal the decision from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided last week with four Democratic politicians: Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Michigan), former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) and former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina.
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A 1971 federal law requires broadcasters to charge candidates no more than the “lowest unit charge,” or LUC, for ads 45 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general or special election. The policy protects candidates from being charged more than other advertisers for a station’s airtime.
But the FCC in March said the lower rates could apply to “authorized committees” as well as “advertisements that qualify as coordinated expenditures of political parties,” the court filing states.
The 4th Circuit, in its 2-1 opinion, concluded “that the LUC requirement and campaign finance statutes are clear that neither political parties nor joint fundraising committees with non-candidate members can be entitled to the LUC.”
The NRCC and NRSC told the high court they had already “budgeted tens of millions of dollars in ad buys under these rules,” but “broadcast stations are already rescinding those rates” because of the 4th Circuit’s decision.
The application is the second emergency issue the Supreme Court is poised to weigh in on that could significantly affect the election. The court will also likely be asked to decide whether the U.S. Postal Service can implement mail ballot changes, a legal clash that is quickly moving through lower courts.
The Democrats, who are all running for election in the midterms, argued that the FCC’s new policy would force them to advertise in an “unlawfully structured competitive environment.”
Candidates themselves tend to raise more money than their political party committees, but the GOP campaign arms have significantly more cash on hand than Democrats, according to recent totals from the Federal Election Commission.
The Supreme Court upended a long-standing campaign finance law in June by striking down limits on the amount of money political parties can spend on candidates. The right-leaning majority of the court cited First Amendment protections in the 6-3 ruling.
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