Web Ads: A Whole New Way To Frank?

On a routine browse of the internets this morning, we were shown this ad at a major political news website:

Not actually Rep. Mike Coffman.

This is an ad directing to GOP Rep. Mike Coffman's official congressional website, coffman.house.gov. There's nothing overtly partisan or campaign related in either the ad or, that we can find right off, on Coffman's official website–which is good, because official websites are not allowed to contain campaign related material. With that said, this ad doesn't link directly to the page on Coffman's website titled "Veterans' Resources" as you might expect: just to Coffman's homepage, where the headline topics include Iran, immigrant enlistment, and defense budget cuts. Anyone who clicks on this ad hoping to see Coffman's actual veterans' services page will need to find it themselves. For most readers clicking on such an ad, the homepage, with its variety of politically interesting topics (as opposed to boring stuff like veterans' services) is where Coffman wants folks to land.

Franking regulations permit the use of taxpayer funds on ads that provide "notice of the constituent services available through the Member’s congressional office." Members of Congress from both parties have pushed the limits of the franking privilege when it suits them, and with Coffman facing the race of his life in 2014, it's fully expected that he's going to put every possible advantage of incumbency to work.

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