I run Facebook ads for my books. I think this is much ado about nothing. When creating an ad, you have to check a box as to whether it's political in any way, or not. If you don't, and FB disagrees, they'll block it.
Furthermore, "boosting" a post requires you to have a product page. If the PD set up their page as a product page, they could boost a post essentially turning it into an ad. As such, the same rules apply.
I think the PD didn't want to play by FB's rules, and make public their grievance. I'm not an expert but I think if they'd just checked the box, the ad would have run.