Call Me Irresponsible

Ian Ayres

The infamous Call Me ad that the Republican National Committee ran against Democratic Tenessee Senatorial Candidate, Harold Ford, Jr., raises interesting question of both campaign finance and civil rights.

Ford's Republican opponent Bob Corker called upon the RNC to pull the ad. And the RNC did stop airing it. But Corker, in making his request, may have crossed the line and inappropriately coordinated with RNC. Coordinated expenditures are treated differently than independent expenditures. Just because the coordination was done in public does not exempt it from the law. It seems clear that Corker should be able to state his opinion about the content of the ad, but equally clear that he shouldn't be able to say "I call upon RNC to recut the ad with an African-American model" and still claim that the recut ad is an independent expenditure.

The civil rights issue is equally difficult. In someways, Democrats who charge that the ad is racist are saying "How dare the RNC insinuate the Ford DOESN'T discriminate." The claim is that the ad would have been less racist if it had used an African-American model to say the tag line "Call me." [It would might still be tacky and sexually inappropriate, but it would not be racist.] But why should it be troubling for the RNC to run an ad suggesting that Ford doesn't discriminate on the basis of race in deciding who to date? It's only troubling if voters think that not discriminating is wrong. Both candidates have been steadfast in refusing to respond to any of the questions about whether the ad is racist. But a more pointed question that the ad puts in play is to ask Corker and Ford whether they think there is anything wrong with whites and blacks dating. Or someone might still ask Corker, "Before you were married, would you have considered dating (or did you ever date) an African American?"
Posted 11:04 AM by Ian Ayres [link]