For State, Local Office Seekers, Web Ads Present Potential Pitfalls

The Florida Elections Commission has decided a mayoral candidate's ads on Google and Facebook appear to violate the state's election law because they don't include a disclaimer that indicates who bought them. Many other states, including Texas, Alaska, Connecticut and Ohio, also require similar disclaimers. The candidate's campaign, however, argues that the messages in question aren't technically ads, but rather links to ads, and that it doesn't pay for them unless a Web user clicks on them. When that happens, it says, the person is taken to a Web site that provides the appropriate disclosures. The online ads are modeled on those the presidential candidates ran last year. But, while both national and local politicians are stepping up their digital-ad spending, the overall sums remain minuscule: Of some $4.8 billion spent on political advertising in 2008, online media accounted for just $20 million, most of it going to search ads, according to research firm Borrell Associates. But analysts say online ads could become a more crucial part of political campaigns, and the Florida dispute is likely to set a precedent for how state and local politicians advertise on the Web.