"Jim" responded to my private email, saying.....


So state senator candidate Jones is in favor of limiting industrial
discharge into a lake; Candidate Jones is not. Boat US says that limiting
discharge is in the best interest of boaters. You want to shut down Boat
US?


I'm presuming your example meant to be smith and jones.

Again, I've just had time to scan it, but the way I understood it (naively
presuming some degree of objective accuracy on the part of Salon... :-) ),
if Boat/US advocates for limiting discharge and cleaning the lake, then they
are clear of regulation. If they advocate specifically against Jones, then
they become a political group. Seems fairly simple. Nothing prevents them
from doing so. The only requirement is that if they want to be pointedly
political, they have to play by the rules for political groups.

And no, I don't want to "... shut down Boat US?..." There's that hyperbole
thing again. You really should try to control that. Its unbecoming.