5.1.2 Campaign Finance Flashcards
What is ‘campaign finance’?
Refers to all the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties or policy initiatives and their agendas during an election.
What was The Federal Election Campaign Act (1974) in response to?
The Watergate Scandal
What is ‘hard money’?
Money donated directly to a political party or an individuals campaign. it is capped by federal law..
What is ‘soft money’?
Money donated indirectly to political parties and therefore not tightly regualted by law
What type of money did The Federal Election Campaign Act (1974) try to limit?
Hard money
What did the Buckley V Valeo (1976) case find about the FECA (1974)?
Supreme Court rules that the act infringed First Amendments Rights and therefore was unconstitutional
In 1979, how did Congress further weaken the FECA (1974)?
Congress allowed parties to raise money for aspects such as voter registration as well as ‘party activities’ (soft money)
Between 1976 and 2008, what were presidential funded by?
Matching funds
What are ‘matching funds’?
Federal money administered by the newly formed Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Who opted out of matching funds?
Obama in 2008
In 2014, what did Obama do to end matching funds?
Signed legislation to end the public financing of parties national conventions
Who initiated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002)?
Republican John McCain
Democrat Russel Feingold
What did the McCain-Feingold Act (2002) do?
National party committees were banned from raising soft money
Corporations and Unions were banned from funding advertisements
Prohibited the use of union or corporate money to mention a federal candidate within 60 days of a general election or 30 day of a primary
What is a Political Action Committee (PAC)?
A committee that raises limited amounts of money and spends this money to defeat a candidate
What is a Super PAC?
A committee that makes independent expenditures but doesn’t make direct contributions to candidates
Where did the PAC originate from?
Citizens United V Federal Election Commission (2010)
What did the Citizens United V Federal Election Commission (2010)?
Because of the limit to contributions to candidates and political parties, new organisations needed to be formed that made independent expenditures on their own
What is the role of a PAC?
To express the purpose of defeating specific candidates
Why was the Citizens United V Federal Election Commission (2010) brought about?
In 2008, Citizens United wanted to air a critical film of Hilary Clinton before within the 60 days of an election. The Supreme Court reversed the McCain-Feingold Act 5 - 4
What was the implication of the Citizens United V Federal Election Commission (2010) case?
It granted corporate and union organisations the same rights of political free speech as individuals
What is the main difference between PACs and SuperPACs?
Can accept unlimited donations from individuals, corps and unions but CANNOT make any direct contributions to candidates and parties
What did the McCutcheon V Federal Election Commission (2014) do, and what was its impact?
Again, raised concerns over the infringements of the FECA 1974, and how it was unconstitutional to the First Amendment
What do supporters of the SuperPAC believe?
A positive consequence of deregulation, they’re an important outlet for political free speech
What do opponents of the SuperPAC believe?
Yet they are another outlet for unlimited money in electoral politics (while legally independent) are merely extensions to campaigns
