Campaign Finance Flashcards
What three different places can campaign donations go to?
- national parties
- presidential candidates
- super PACs
What are the three main concerns over the role of money in US elections?
- excessive influence of major donors
- secrecy surrounding who is donating and receiving cash
- inequality of expenditure between candidates or parties
What are the three major finance regulations on presidential elections?
- Federal Election Campaign Act 1974
- Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 2002
- Citizens United v Federal Election Commission 2010
McCutcheon v FEC 2014
- SC struck down limits on individual campaign contributions
- ruled that federal limits on combined donations to candidates / parties / PACs were an unconstitutional infringement on free speech
What is the purpose of Federal Election Campaign Act?
introduced a law to regulate money in elections
What were the main impacts of FECA?
- placed legal limits on campaign contributions
- creates a maximum expenditure limit for each candidate in the presidential election
- requires candidates to disclose sources of campaign contributions and campaign expenditure
- created federal funding of presidential and primary elections
- created PACs
What are PACs?
- political action committee
- raises limited amounts of money
- spend contributions for the express purpose of electing or defeating candidates
Why must a PAC be created?
has to be created by any group wanting to donate money to a campaign
What flaws are within FECA that has severely reduces its effectiveness in regulating campaign finance?
- increase in soft money
- SC has undermined it on numerous accounts
- end of federal funding
What is soft money?
money donated by interest groups or individuals or spent by parties or candidates that could not be regulated under the law
How is FECA flawed?
loopholes have been found in order for contrinued donations or spending wihtout regulations
Give an example of a loophole in FECA
business/interest groups spend money on campaign advertising for or against a candidate without directly donating money to a candidates campaign
Where is the loophole within FECA?
restrictions cover funding of candidates but not funding of parties
How did FECA have an effect on federal funding?
- reduced need for federal funds
- candidates became increasingly effective at raising money
How did Bush raise money for his campaign?
- raised more than the campaign limit
- without using federal funds
- by rejecting federal funds he was not constrained by campaign expenditure limits
