Money and Elections

1
Money and Elections
travel
radio and television time
polls
pamphlets
newspaper advertisements
websites
professional campaign managers and consultants

• Chapter 7.3

office rent
mass mailings
posters and bumper stickers
buttons
data processing
2
Sources of Funding

• Private contributors

• Public treasury

3
Types of Private Contributors

• Small contributors - 5-20
• Wealthy individuals and families
• Candidates
• Various non-party groups
• Especially Political Action Committees (PACs)
• Temporary organizations

4
The Federal Election Commission (FEC)

• Administers all federal law dealing with campaign
  finance
• Set up by Congress in 1874 as an independent
  agency of the executive branch

5
The Federal Election Commission (FEC)

• The FEC is under-funded and understaffed
• Congress members, the ones that raise and spend
  campaign money, keep the FEC weak

6
Laws the FEC Enforces

• Timely disclosure of campaign finance data
• Limits on campaign contributions
• Limits on campaign expenditures
• Provide public funding for several parts of the
  presidential election process

7
Contribution Limits
Candidate in a primary Candidate in the general election PAC National Party
Individual 2,400 2,400 5,000 30,400
PAC 5,000 5,000 - 15,000
8
Political Action Committees (PACs)

• Are non-party groups
• Who represent special interest groups that have a
  major stake in public policy matters
• Created because corporations and unions can not
  give campaign contributions

9
Soft Money

• Federal law neither limits nor requires the
  reporting of soft money.
• This includes those contributions made to state
  and local party organizations.

10
Hard Money

• Is money that has limits set forth by the Federal
  Elections Commission (FEC)