5.1.2 - Campaign Finance Flashcards
What are matching funds?
Federal money administered to by the FEC (Federal Election Commission) and given to Pres candidates who met certain requirements and agreed to certain limitations
What is hard money and what is done to hard money under federal law?
Hard money is money donated directly to a political party of an individual candidate’s campaign - donations of this type are capped by federal law
What is soft money?
Money donated indirectly to political parties and PACs and therefore not regulated by law
State of play with campaign finance pre 2008?
Pre 2008 all Pres candidates took federal matching funds to fund their campaign - this was $72 million in 1976
How did Obama change the way campaign funding worked?
For his 2008 campaign Obama opted out of matching funds and was able to have far more superior funding (upwards of $400 million)
How did Obama claim he was able to raise so much money?
Obama said most of his campaign donations were those less than $200 which don’t have to be declared
What are PACs
Political action committee - a type of organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation – PACs are limited by laws
What are supers PACs
A type of independent political action committee which may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, and individuals, but is NOT permitted to contribute to or coordinate directly with parties or candidates
Explain FECA?
FECA is the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 - it comes after a turbulent time in US politics (1968 Dem convention, Watergate, etc) - limits the amount of money that individuals, unions, and corporations could donate to campaigns - limits the role of big business
What was the first challenge to FECA?
1976 - Buckley v Valeo - SC ruled that limitations on what individuals or groups could contribute to a campaign infringed upon first amendment rights and was therefore unconstitutional
What did Congress do in 1979?
In 1979 Congress further weakened the law by allowing soft money to be spent by the parties on ‘non-federal administrative and party building activities’
McCain - Feingold Act 2002 - What did it ban, what were the limits it set, what provision did it require?
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) banned soft money from being raised or spent by national party committees as its use had been blown out of proportion - also set individual limits on contributions to individual campaigns to $2300 - and a ‘stand by your ad’ provision requiring campaign ads to include a verbal endorsement from thr candidate
What was Citizens United v FEC?
In 2010 a non-profit called Citizens United wanted to air and advertise a film critical of Hilary Clinton - the US District Court of Columbia found this to be in breach of the McCain-Feingold Act which prohibited political broadcasts within 30 days of a general and 60 days of a primary - the SC then reversed this decision ruling 5-4 in favour of Citizens Untied and finding the McCain-Feingold Act to be in violation of the first amendment
Impact of Citizens United v FEC ruling?
- Granted corporate and labour organisations the same rights of political free speech as individuals thereby giving such groups unlimited political expenditure
- Led to the setting up of Super PACs that could solicit and accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labour organisations or other political committees - they spend money to achieve their desired objective but are forbidden from making direct contributions to campaigns or parties
Fundraising in 2016 - Money raised by Trump and Clinton, total spend on Congressional and Pres elections?
- During 2016 election cycle Trumo raised $340 million to Clinton’s $580 million - total spend on Congressional and Pres elections in 2016 was $6.5 billion
