Democracy & Participation: Campaign/ Campaign Finance Flashcards
What are two examples of the little impact of televised debates?
- Obama v Romney 2012: Romney was coherent and aggressive, and Obama was disengaged and flat. He left many of Romney’s claims unchallenged, and it pushed Romney up in opinion polls
-
Trump v Hillary Clinton 2016: She appeared to outperform in all, but it only marginally moved her numbers.
However… the losers both won the election.
How do you define the ‘effectiveness’ of the Electoral Process?
It is successful in producing a desired/intended result.
What is soft money?
Money donated to a party rather than candidate, and used for ‘party building activities’. Few limits.
What is hard money?
Donations directly to an electoral campaign. Subject to strict limits.
How can political parties be funded?
Individuals can send a direct donation of $2800 as well as…
- PACS: Can raise 5,000 donations per campaign
- 527s: Unlimited amount: Call for the election or defeat of a candidate but cannot coordinate with those campaigns.
What does PACs stand for?
Political Action Committees
What do PACs do?
- A committee that raises a limited amount of money for the purpose of either defeating or electing candidates.
- Set up due to individual limits put on campaign finance.
- Either gives money to candidates they support or money against those they oppose.
- Examples include: NRA, Humane USA
What are Super PACs?
- Political committees that make independent expenditures but doesn’t make contributions to candidates.
- Technically known as independent expenditure only committees.
- May solicit or accept unlimited contributions.
- Spend money to achieve their desired objective.
What is 527?
- Named after a tax code which exempts them from tax.
- Can raise unlimited amounts of money for political activities.
- Not specifically for or against.
What are examples of campaign finance reforms?
- Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) 1971
- Buckley v Valeo 1976
- Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain v Feingold) 2002
- Citizens United v FEC 2010
- McCutcheon v FEC 2014
What was the Federal Election Campaign Act 1971?
- Was the first successful attempt to reform campaign finance.
- Required all campaigns to disclose who had donated money and how much they have donated.
- Amended in 1974.
What were the reforms of the FECA after Watergate in 1974?
- Established the FEC
- Limited individual contributions. Only contribute to candidates through PACs.
What was Buckly v Valeo 1976?
Supreme Court ruled limiting the amount an individual or PAC could spend on a campaign was against 1st Amendment rights.
What amendments did Congress make on the FECA in 1979?
- They weakened the law on campaign finance.
- Introduced soft money.
What was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 2002 also known as?
McCain- Feingold Law
What did the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 2002 do?
- Banned soft money donations to national parties.
- Raised individual contributions per candidate and an aggregate limit.
- Corporations and labour unions are banned from funding issue advertisement.
- No advertisement paid for by corporations and unions for a candidate 60 days before election.
- Stand by candidate must endorse campaign ads.
What was Citizens United v FEC 2010?
- Citizens United released a very negative film on Clinton.
- The Supreme Court ruled that McCain-Feingold violated free speech. 5-4 split.
- Now have unlimited caps on soft money.
- Still illegal for them to give money directly to a candidate.
- Resulted in Super PACs.
What was McCutcheon v FEC 2014?
Ruled the limit on donations the 2002 McCain-Feingold set on how much you could spend in a 2yr election cycle was unconstitutional.
What are the problems with Super PACs?
- Encourages inequality of funding.
- Encourages negative campaigning.
- Encourages excessive influence of major donors.
How much did Priorities USA Action raise on behalf of Clinton’s campaign?
- Over $192 million.
- This represented over 90% of all outside group money raised on behalf of her campaign.
How much of Clinton’s campaign was sourced by herself?
0.3%
What % of Trump’s campaign was sourced by himself in 2016?
23%
How much did Rebuilding America Now donate to Trump’s 2016 campaign?
$23 million
What PAC donated $23 million to Trump’s campaign?
Rebuilding America Now
Why is campaign finance hard to reform?
- Those in power benefit. It could make a President’s re-election more difficult.
- Too many loopholes – groups find ways to work around it.
- PACs, 527s and SUPER PACs all demonstrate that groups will use money to influence elections, one way or another.
- &*Supreme Court rulings on the 1st Amendment** have made it more difficult.
- Constitution is entrenched and difficult to change.
- Lack of consensus on what campaign finance reform would look like.
- &&Lack of bipartisan agreement** – making effective legislation or a constitutional amendment highly unlikely.
What are some potential campaign finance reform?
- Small-donor matching funds. (Funds that are set to be paid in proportion to funds available from other sources.)
- Donor declarations more regular rather than quarterly, meaning some campaign donations are not released until after the election.
Why did the FECA 1971 fail?
- Loop holes and weakened by the SC and Congress.
