Legislation preventing elected officials from using appearances in public service announcements (PSAs) as free campaign TV time passed a committee vote Monday.

House Bill 1451, by Rep. Rob Johnson, would ban elected officials from appearing in PSAs during election years in which they are up for re-election. The measure passed a vote of the House Rules Committee Monday and now moves to the House floor.

“This practice essentially allows incumbents to have free campaign commercials,” said Johnson (R-Kingfisher). “Basically, if an elected official has a buddy who’s putting together a PSA, the official can appear in it, reaching hundreds, if not thousands of people at no charge to his or her campaign. It borders on being unethical, and certainly gives incumbents an unfair advantage. Rarely can a challenger afford such an opportunity.

“Public service announcements certainly serve a valuable purpose, and this bill is in no way an attack against them,” Johnson added. “We just want to remove this unfair advantage for sitting elected officials.”

If passed by the Legislature and signed into law, HB 1451 would be in effect for the 2008 elections, in which at least all 101 of Oklahoma’s House seats and 24 of the state’s Senate seats will be up for grabs.