Commission Rules Chapter 26

Chapter 26.

POLITICAL AND LEGISLATIVE ADVERTISING

§26.2 Newsletter of Public Officer of a Political Subdivision

§26.7. Use of the Term "Reelect" in Political Advertising

§26.1. Disclosure Statement (amendments effective January 1, 2017)

(a)A disclosure statement that is required by §255.001, Election Code, must contain the words "political advertising" or any recognizable abbreviation, and must:

(1) appear on one line of text or on successive lines of text on the face of the political advertising; or

(2) be clearly spoken in the political advertising if the political advertising does not include written text.

(b) A disclosure statement is not required on political advertising printed on letterhead stationery if the letterhead contains the full name of one of the following:

(1) the person who paid for the political advertising;

(2) the political committee authorizing the political advertising; or

(3) the candidate authorizing the political advertising.

(1) campaign buttons, pins, or hats, or on objects whose size makes printing the disclosure impractical;

(2) political advertising posted or re-posted on an Internet website, as long as the person posting or re-posting the political advertising:

(i) is not an officeholder, candidate, or political committee; and

(ii) did not make an expenditure exceeding $100 in a reporting period for political advertising beyond the basic cost of hardware messaging software and bandwidth;

(3) the Internet social media profile webpage of a candidate or officeholder, provided the webpage clearly and conspicuously displays the full name of the candidate or officeholder; or

(4) political advertising posted or re-posted by a person on an Internet website, provided the advertising is posted with a link to a publicly viewable Internet webpage that:

(i) contains the disclosure statement; or

ii) is exempt from containing the disclosure statement under Subsection (c)(3).

(d) For the purposes of Subsection (c), an "Internet social media profile webpage" is an Internet webpage on a website where members of the public may, for no charge, connect electronically with other members of the public and share text, images, videos, and similar forms of communications.

§26.2 Newsletter of Public Officer of a Political Subdivision

For purposes of §255.003 of the Election Code, a newsletter of a public officer of a political subdivision is not political advertising if:

(1) It includes no more than two pictures of a public officer per page and if the total amount of area covered by the pictures is no more than 20 percent of the page on which the pictures appear;

(2) It includes no more than eight personally phrased references (such as the public officer’s name, “I”, “me”, “the city council member”) on a page that is 8 ½” x 11” or larger, with a reasonable reduction in the number of such personally phrased references in pages smaller than 8 ½” x 11”; and

(3) When viewed as a whole and in the proper context:

(A) is informational rather than self-promotional;

(B) does not advocate passage or defeat of a measure; and

(C) does not support or oppose a candidate for nomination or election to a public office or office of political party, a political party, or a public officer.

§26.3. Legislative Advertising

Political advertising as defined by the Election Code, Section 251.001(16) (concerning Definitions), does not constitute legislative advertising under the Government Code, Section 305.027 (concerning Required Disclosure on Legislative Advertising).

§26.5. Code of Fair Campaign Practices

A candidate or political committee that has filed a copy of the Code of Fair Campaign Practices as provided by the Election Code, Chapter 258, may indicate that fact on political advertising by including the following or a substantially similar statement: (Name of the candidate or political committee, as appropriate) subscribes to the Code of Fair Campaign Practices.

§26.7. Use of the Term "Reelect" in Political Advertising

A person or candidate may, in the event of redistricting, use the term "reelect" in a campaign for elective office only if the candidate is the elected incumbent of an office that represented any part of the new or renumbered district prior to the redistricting.