States weigh campaign rules for the Internet age

Many states currently require political ads to include disclaimers saying who paid for them, although some exempt small items such as bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts where a disclaimer is impractical. Paul Ryan, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, said text messages and small pay-per-click online ads might become "the campaign buttons of the Millennium Era." So far, the Federal Elections Commission has taken a mostly hands-off approach, as campaigns still spend far more money reaching voters through television, radio and direct mail. The commission ruled in 2006 that campaign regulations do not apply to most Internet activity, except for paid political advertising on someone else's Web site. Bloggers are exempt as long as they write voluntarily and are not paid by a campaign.