Mike Gravel Sues Pro-Clinton 527

Mike Gravel’s campaign announced today that he has filed suit against the American Leadership Project, which is an independent pro-Clinton 527. The American Leadership Project plans to about $10 million on television ads, like this one, in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The group has already received a complaint to the FEC filed by supporters of Barack Obama. An official from ALP, Roger Salazar describes the group as follows:

The American Leadership Project is a committee of Americans who have come together to shine a backlight on issues that matter most to our nation’s middle class and do it in a positive way. These are positive ads that serve to raise awareness about these issues at a critical time in our nation’s history and in places where they are paying the most attention. Right now that’s Ohio and Texas. Sen. Clinton is a champion of these issues. ALP supports her positions and we say so in the ads.

From the Gravel press release:

[The suit asks] the court to slap a temporary restraining order on this 527 to prevent it from breaking the law with this commercial. This 527 has failed to register with the Federal Election Commission.

The law prohibits 527s from distributing ads that use “phrases . . . or individual words, which in context can have no other reasonable meaning than to urge the election . . . of” a particular candidate or “[w]hen taken as a whole and with limited reference to external events, such as the proximity to the election, could only be interpreted by a reasonable person as containing advocacy of the election . . . of” a particular candidate (2 U.S.C. § 431(17)).

Gravel argues:

“This ad affects me not only as one of the three remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination but also as a citizen who has watched 527s run circles around the FEC.”

Additional details may follow…