BNA: “The Federal Election Commission’s three Republican commissioners have released a new statementon a two-year-old enforcement case regarding political advertising that featured Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)….Though the Merkley case itself is history, the new statement about it highlights a key issue that the FEC continues to grapple with: the circumstances in which political ads are considered independent of a candidate’s campaign. The FEC commissioners deadlocked along party lines on the same issue in a vote at the commission’s Dec. 1 meeting. The vote came on an advisory opinion (AO 2011-23) requested by American Crossroads (3152 Money & Politics Report, 12/2/11).”