The Florida Election Commission has ruled that St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Scott Wagman was not in violation of election laws when he ran advertisements on Google this summer.
The Commission informed Wagman in July that they had received a complaint that the ads violated state election law, because they didn't include a disclaimer that indicates who bought them. At the time, the FEC found the complaint legally sufficient to pursue further investigation.
The complaint was made against Wagman by blogger Peter Schorsch, who was working at one time during the campaign for an opponent of Wagman, Jamie Bennett.
When news of the investigation broke, the Wall Street Journal reported on it, writing that the case could change the rules for traditional media applied to the internet.
They wrote:
The major difference lies in exemptions. Federal law says the disclosure requirements don't apply to bumper stickers, pens and other small items in which the disclaimer's inclusion would be impractical. The Florida law, which applies to state and local elections, has just two exceptions: campaign messages that are designed to be worn by a person and novelty items with a retail value of $10 or less.
Wagman was unavailable for comment.
On his blog, Peter Schorsch wrote today that:
Actually, as much as I would like to see the case further pursued, the FEC got it right: Wagman's actions did not show "reckless disregard." I also have to admit that, at the time I filed these complaints, I was more interested in the political ramifications than the legal ones. This complaint and the series of articles it prompted disrupted Wagman's campaign.
Wagman finished fourth in the ten person primary field in September. He ultimately declined to endorse fellow Democrat Kathleen Ford in the general election, and instead contributed financially to Bill Foster.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.