Stevens' Sandwich: The Approval is the Meat

This is somewhat breaking, so I'll be snappy and nimble.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules dictate that the ubiquitous "I'm Candidate X and I approve this message" approval clause must come at the beginning or end of televised, campaign-sanctioned ads. A recent ad by Stevens is in clear violation of this rule, as it features Stevens' endorsement in the middle of the ad.

This story is early, so I've no solid indication yet as to whether or not this is just static/minutiae or if it will develop into a significant distractor later in the news cycle. This could easily be used to advance the insofar potent Stevens-as-irreparably-corrupt frame. It's well-known that at this stage, even a pebble (NB: intentions of the author vis-a-vis this pun intentionally left ambiguous) in the wrong place can trip up a runner in a race as close as this.

A direct link to the Democrats' press release is here. Kudos to fellow Alaskan political blogger at I Eat Gravel for hosting.