Doonesbury’s Satire on Brown Ruled No Illegal Contribution

When cartoonist Garry B. Trudeau satirized Democrat Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.’s toll-free fund-raising number in his Doonesbury comic strip, he didn’t expect to be accused of making an illegal campaign contribution.

“As readers of the many Brown strips I have created dating back to 1978 would no doubt confirm, I am anything but a supporter of the governor,” Trudeau wrote the Federal Election Commission.

“It was not my intention to contribute any publicity of value to the Jerry Brown campaign,” he added, noting that his mention of the number was “in a disparaging and satiric context.”

The FEC agreed, voting unanimously to dismiss a complaint from a North Carolina man that Trudeau’s display of Brown’s 1-800 number in two comic strips in February amounted to a prohibited contribution.

Federal law limits individual contributions to $1,000 per candidate per election and outlaws corporate donations of any sort to candidates. Brown himself limits contributions to no more than $100.

J. Edgar Williams of Carrboro, N. C., alleged in a complaint to the FEC in April that Trudeau’s strip “prominently featured” the fund-raising number and “undoubtedly resulted in a major increase in such donations.”

The FEC lawyers dismissed the allegation, noting that campaign finance laws exempt from the definition of contributions “any news story, commentary or editorial.”