Federal Election Commissioner Bradley Smith stirred the blog pot by suggesting that blogs might be treated very differently in the next elections, according to CNET. The FEC opted not to regulate internet coverage of the election in a 2002 decision, but Smith and two fellow Republican commissioners say that this may be revisited. Oddly, Smith suggested that writing about candidates and linking to various campaign materials may constitute a contribution, putting blogs under campaign finance scrutiny - an opinion that would be readily dismissible, had it not come out of the mouth of one the FEC commissioners. Smith admitted that the bi-partisan commission (not non-partisan) saw this as a partisan issue, with Democrats staunchly against blog regulation. When asked what sorts of behaviors might be regulated, Smith told CNET, "We're talking about any decision by an individual to put a link on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass emails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet."

Regulation of blogs may find a higher standard of First Amendment scrutiny, as blogs differ from traditional media in that they typically consist of opinions of individuals. Recent campaign finance reforms were interpreted by the FEC as skipping over the Internet, which provided a small spending loophole to campaigns, but that hole - likely to be closed - had more to do with paid advertising rather than personal expression.