10 3 Civics

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