This one is a bit involved so apologies up front for diving into the backstory.
In June of this year, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case called National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission. It was a 6-3 decision and the gist of it was that the Supreme Court struck down some limits on the amount of money political parties could spend in coordination with candidates.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a major ruling on money in elections. By a vote of 6-3, the justices struck down a federal law that limited the amount of money that political parties can spend in coordination with a candidate for office. The majority opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, agreed with the challengers that the coordinated expenditure limits violate the First Amendment...
Writing for the court, Kavanaugh said that Tuesday’s ruling “treats all political parties equally. It will allow all political parties—including the DNC and RNC and the respective Senate and House campaign committees, as well as other parties and party committees—to participate more freely and compete more fully in the political process, and to coordinate more closely with their candidates.”
That decision was seen as a big win for Republicans because, as I've discussed previously, the DNC and other Democrat outside groups are broke, especially compared to Republican groups which are currently flush with cash. So the June decision meant that those outside groups could now buy up a bunch of ads in coordination with campaigns as they headed toward the midterms.
But there was a wrinkle involving the rates. Earlier this year, the Trump FCC published a memo stating that outside groups would now be allowed to buy airtime on TV stations at the same low rates as candidates. But a group of four Democrats hired attorney Marc Elias to fight that in court.
...four Democratic candidates from the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio brought a separate but related legal challenge to the lower ad rates.
Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan together challenged a notice by the Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that regulates broadcasters, that had alerted political parties and committees that they would now be entitled to the low rates.
On Aug. 25, a divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sided with the Democratic challengers. Judge Robert B. King, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote for the majority that the statute was “unambiguous” that only political candidates, not parties, are entitled to the low advertising rates. He added that the F.C.C. notice represented a “significant and unilateral expansion” of the rule.
So last Friday Republican groups filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court, asking the court to give them the same rates that candidates pay and arguing that refusing to do so would be tantamount to limiting political speech in the run up to an election. Today the Supreme Court agreed and handed the Republican groups a win.
In a victory for Republicans in the run-up to the midterms, the Supreme Court on Friday found that political parties are entitled to the same low-cost TV ad rates as candidates...
The court’s majority found that Republican Party committees were likely to suffer “irreparable harm” unless the justices cleared the way for them to receive the low-cost ad rates, saying that requiring party committees to pay more for advertising would hamper “their efforts to reach the electorate in the critical weeks leading up to the midterms.”
Again, the ruling itself doesn't specify one party over another, it's just that Republican groups have money to spend and Democrat groups do not.
The Supreme Court has restored the ability of political party committees to buy TV and radio ads at the cheapest possible rates — a move that is likely to aid Republicans as they battle to hold control of Congress this fall.
While the ruling Friday gives all national political party organs the right to the same highly discounted rates given to candidates, the decision delivers a lopsided benefit to the GOP, since the Republican National Committee and the party’s two congressional-focused committees hold a massive financial advantage over their Democratic counterparts as the midterms near.
The RNC currently has more than $130 million in the bank, while the Democratic National Committee has just $9.5 million on-hand and roughly $18 million in debt.
So this means Republican ad money should go a lot farther than it would have otherwise, which is good. It's not as important as good candidates and good ads but it amplifies an advantage the GOP already had going for it.
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