In a busy day at the Federal Election Commission, commissioners on Thursday appeared ready to approve a proposal to allow small campaign donations via cell phone carriers, and, in a separate case, said they would a consider whether a congressional challenger's ads for his plumbing company have to be treated as electioneering communications. 

The three Republican commissioners were ready to give the green light to allow small, anonymous donations to campaigns via a text message aggregation service. But a Democratic commissioner, Ellen Weintraub, wanted some questions answered and said she was not ready to vote on it. The FEC ...