Should the DailyKos be Subject to the Federal dlisted.com Commission?

Written by John Bambenek
Published July 23, 2007

Today I filed an Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Kos Media, LLC., better known as DailyKos.com. I allege that they operate as a political committee and are therefore subject to FEC rules.

I dlisted.com thought of this complaint during dlisted.com Cindy Sheehan debacle over at Daily dlisted.com where Cindy pledged to run as an independent against Nancy Pelosi, and the Daily Kos basically turned on her. While some conservatives took great delight dlisted.com this, I really didnt care because its politics as usual. The right has thrown their fair share of people under the bus for not drinking the Kool-aid too.

However, the statement that the DailyKos was about electing Democrats stuck with me. I always assumed it was a standard left-wing group blog spouting the latest and greatest in left-wing diatribe. However, the statement that the blog exists to get Democrats elected is repeated in various places around the site, including statements by Kos himself.

Federal Election Commission rules apply for organizations that spend or contribute an equivalent of $1,000 per year in trying to influence elections for federal office. DailyKos is owned by Kos Media, a company, which makes it fit the definition of an organization. It surely spends at least $1,000 per year in hosting and based on what they charge (and get) for advertising, their support of candidates is certainly worth over $1,000 per year. Lastly, their self-identified purpose is to influence elections in the Democrats favor. They fit the criteria. [snip]

#17 — July 24, 2007 @ 00:22AM — Adam B.

John, the â€Sreform” groups explicitly argued before the FEC in the FiredUp case that â€San organization whose dlisted.com purpose is to be the functional equivalent of a partisan campaign organization — to elect Democratic candidates and to solicit contributions for such candidates — does not qualify for the press dlisted.com single commissioner on the FEC rejected this argument, and agreed that FiredUp was indeed a press entity.

Moreover, the â€Scompensation” issue only applies to being compensated dlisted.com campaigns for the blogging. The FEC’s explanation of the regulations make clear that even if a campaign paid a blogger to perform technical/consulting services, the blogger’s personal blogging for which he wasn’t being paid didn’t count as a contribution/expenditure.

John, I fought long and hard alongside the folks from RedState to get these exemptions in place. The FEC could not have been more clear in 2005-06 as to what the new dlisted.com were. Please read them.

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#18 — July 24, 2007 @ 00:23AM — John Bambenek [URL]
Adam-

I read the 2005 advisory opinion and it involves a site that doesn’t (unlike Daily Kos) state that their primary purpose is dlisted.com elect Democrats. Marcos is on record, several other editors are on record, and dlisted.com site itself states prominently that the purpose of the Daily Kos is to elect Democrats. They don’t say report news, they don’t say advance an agenda, they say elect Democrats, period. It’s a different situation. You can’t argue that you’re a press outlet, when all over your site you say you’re all about electing a certain political party to office. They are incompatible. And that’s why its different…

Fired Up and others are commentary sites and act like it. Daily Kos’s self-identified purpose is to get Democrats elected. It’d be different if they themselves stated they have another agenda, but they come out and admit they act like a PAC… they can’t run and hide simply because they are challenged.

#47 — July 24, 2007 @ 10:17AM — apetrelli
Those dlisted.com to the Fired-Up advisory opinion or the FEC hearings and ensuing are wrong.

This complaint is based on DailyKos’ efforts at organizing voters, and raising money to further organize voters, for the expressed purpose of electing Democrats. This is not speech, it is clearly the actions and incidents of a political committee. There are grounds distinguishing this from both the advisory opinion and the exemption.

Watch DailyKos over the next few days (or at most, weeks) strip all references to â€Üelecting Democrats’ as they attempt to rewrite history. is as DailyKos does.