CAMPAIGN ’88 : Gore FEC Ruling Gives Him Useless Victory

Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.) won a ruling Thursday from the Federal Election Commission that he probably would have preferred to lose.

The question was whether Gore’s presidential campaign could air a 60-second television ad, use three seconds to make a pitch for funds and then count half the cost of the ad as a “fund-raising expense,” which would not count against a state spending limit. The FEC, voting 4 to 2, said yes.

Gore had put the question before the FEC after finding out that both Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis had included appeals for money in their January Iowa advertising and had then written off 50% of the cost as fund raising.

For Gore, losing at the FEC would have been a tactical victory--putting his opponents on the spot. Winning, however, is useless. State spending ceilings were a problem for campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire--small states with low ceilings but high impact. From now on, however, the campaigns will be fighting mostly in larger states, where state spending ceilings are more than adequate.