“Democrats: Husted must enforce election spending rule”

This is interesting:

Secretary of State Jon Husted should enforce a controversial rule that limits election spending by companies, nonprofits and unions, Democrats said Thursday.

The regulation requires companies, unions and nonprofits to disclose when they pay for election ads. It also prohibits companies from spending money to influence elections for a year after they receive state or federal money, such as through a contract or a grant to promote job creation. Ohio House Republicans drew attention to the rule last week by passing legislation that would void it, saying limiting corporate election spending was a violation of free speech.

Readers may recall that the original version of Democrats’ DISCLOSE Act would have limited election spending by government contractors. I took the position (and still do) that such a limitation violates the First Amendment under Citizens United.  (The current version of the DISCLOSE Act does not do so, and I testified in favor of it before the Senate Rules Committee.)

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