The Federal Elections Commission voted yesterday to weaken their restrictions on issue ads run by third party groups before an election, bringing the rules in line with a recent Supreme Court ruling. The new rules will allow a group to specifically mention a candidate by name and comment upon their positions, but it must be done within the overall context of discussing the issue at hand.

The ruling has the potential to open the floodgates for more issue ads in the upcoming primaries and the general election season, whereas some groups would have shied away from doing so last time. Reform advocate Fred Wertheimer told the Associated Press that the final rules are too permissive, and that they "will open the door to campaign attack ads masquerading as issue ads again being funded with soft money."