Organization testing 527 rules

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You’d have to think that with a name like The Real Truth About Obama Inc., an anti-abortion activist group would not qualify as a so-called 527. That’s because its name implies a position on the candidacy of an individual running for federal office, making it more akin to a political action committee, subject to financial restrictions and pre-election blackouts.


The group insists it simply wants to discuss its issue of interest and will not advocate for or against Obama’s election. According to the Associated Press, the group has preliminary hearing in court on 9/10/08, seeking an injunction preventing either the FEC or DOJ from stopping their attempt to advertise on the radio.

RBR/TVBR observation: As we mentioned recently, we’ve already seen an ad, produced by a third party organization rather than by an individual campaign or political party, that did not advocate the election or defeat of an incumbent in Congress. It just presented a laundry list of things most sentient human beings would find to be somewhere in the range of mildly objectionable to horrifying, then gave out the incumbent’s contact info and suggested the audience use it.

To us, the ad transparently advocated for the cat’s defeat. But then again, we have yet to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and as such did not get to vote on Wisconsin Right to Life. (Do you think we weren’t nominated because at any moment, we might call a legislator a cat?)