Transcript
Section 3
Financing a Campaign
Chapter 10Paying For Election Campaigns
OUTLINE• Financing a Campaign
• Raising Money
– Federal Election Campaign Act• Federal Election Committee• Limiting Contributions• Public Funding
– PACs and Soft Money• Spending on Media• A Reluctance to Reform
– Campaign Reform• New Law Upheld and The Future
Raising Money
• It has been so shady in the past, that now there is federal legislation enacted to regulate how and where candidates get money
• We have seen many changes in these laws over the past few years in an effort to reform the system
• Namely the FEC and Buckley v. Valeo
Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)
• An effort to control/regulate campaign financing (est. 1971; amend. 1974, 1976, 1979)
• What did it do?– Required public disclosure of each candidate’s
spending– Limited the amount of money that individuals or
groups could donate directly to a candidate or political party (HARD MONEY)
– Set up the FEC
The FEC
Their job is to administer all federal election laws and to monitor campaign spending
All contributions to a candidate or political party over 200 dollars needs to be reported to the FEC
“political watchdog”
Buckley v. Valeo
• “Set the precedent”
• The Supreme Court decided that it IS constitutional to set limits on campaign contributions bc of its need to keep corruption out of elections.
• HOWEVER…….
C.R.E.A.M!!!!• You are allowed to
spend as much as you want on the entire campaign (no “cap”) and you can spend as much of your own money as you want!!!!!
Public Funding
• FECA – wanted to give us an opportunity to help these candidates get elected. How?
• The Presidential Election Campaign Fund• Check a box on your Tax Returns…and you can
donate three of your dollars to this fund that, if they qualify, can benefit candidates.
Public vs. Private
• Most money comes from Private Sources and not Public (Pres. Camp. Elec. Fund)– Examples of Private Sources• Individual citizens• Corporations• Labor unions• Interest groups• Political Action Committes (PACs)
Political Action Committees (PACs)
• Organizations set up by interest groups specifically to collect money to support favored candidates.
Amounts limited by FECA
Soft money
• Political Parties can also raise “soft money” – which is unlimited amounts of money used for general purposes.– VOTER REGISTRATION CAMPAIGNS– DIRECT MAILINGS
• According to FECA - This money could come from anyone and anywhere – and there was no limit
Spending on Media
• FECA put no limits on any media spending, TV, print, radio, etc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svbcwx6FZPA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4_ypTOwo_U
A Reluctance to Reform
• Because it was getting sloppy and shady – there was talks of “reform” in Congress….
• However, incumbents were reluctant to give up their advantage
Campaign Reform
• In 2002 – Change came….• Congress passed the The Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act (aka the McCain-Feingold Act)• A prohibition of national political parties,
federal officeholders, and federal candidates from raising soft money
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
• It also put restrictions on Corporations, interest group, and unions running ads for (or against) candidates.
• Limited Hard Money contributions– individual candidate – 2,000– Political Party – 25,000
New Law Upheld
• McConnell v. Federal Elections Committee
• “these limits are a violation of my free speech”
• McCain-Feingold Act - UPHELDWhy?Without limits big donors could influence
the policy makers – unfair and undemocratic
The Future?
• Candidates need to now focus on a larger amount of smaller donations
• How do we do that? THE INTERNET
• Cheap, reaches millions
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