A 48-page newsprint candidate-endorsement publication mailed to voters statewide is exempt from campaign finance reporting rules under Idaho law because it qualifies as a newspaper, the Idaho Attorney General’s office has ruled.
That’s because Idaho law is narrower than federal law, wrote Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane, classifying such publications as newspapers as long as they’re not owned or controlled by a candidate or political party.
“Nothing indicates such ownership and control to this office,” Kane wrote in a four-page legal opinion addressed to Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney. Read more…