Money in politics

Question 1

what do interest groups do? what are they?

Answer 1

1. seek to support public officials with MONEY
2. focus only on issues that affect their members
3. are private organizations

Question 2

what are the goals of interest groups

Answer 2

1. gain access to policy makers
2. influence public policy
3. support sympathetic policy makers with votes and money

Question 3

how do lobbyists lobby congressional leaders?

Answer 3

• testify before congress
  -provide expertise
  -meet with congressional aids
  -bring influanencial constituents to DC
• provide gifts, and favors to reperesentives.

Question 4

what is the most effective lobbying technique?

Answer 4

providing expertise (bringing information to congressional leaders, adding small changes to bills)

Question 5

how do you lobby executive branch

Answer 5

• present point of view to white house aids
  -(they have specific staff to talk to lobbyists)
  -try to gain access to regulatory agencies in order to influence regulations

Question 6

how do you lobby the courts

Answer 6

-there is no direct access to courts
-courts are a last resort if interest groups don’t get what they want (file lawsuits or something)

Question 7

Amicus curiae briefs

Answer 7

“friend of the court breifs” written arguments supporting interest group’s side in a supreme court case

Question 8

hard money given by PACs is ______________ by law to _______________ per candidate per election

Answer 8

limited to 5000 dollars

Question 9

PR campaigns

Answer 9

try to bring an issue to the public’s attention

Question 10

mobilizing your members to contact their reps about an issue that impacts your interest group

Answer 10

grass roots organizing

Question 11

how do you shape public opinion?

Answer 11

• advertisements
  -demonstrations (raise awareness, and express veiwpoints)

Question 12

how does size affect an interest group

Answer 12

large membership - bigger protests, volunteers, more awareness
small membership- more passion

Question 13

free riders

Answer 13

big interest groups have more freeriders- people who benefit from the group without actually making a contribution to the effort.

Question 14

how does intensity affect interest groups?

Answer 14

more passion/intensity = more sucess

Question 15

____________ interest groups tend to be the most passionate

Answer 15

single issues

Question 16

astroturfing

Answer 16

making your group look like real grass roots but it’s actually fake

Question 17

Lots of _________ can compensate for low size/intensity

Answer 17

money

Question 18

what makes an interest group successful?

Answer 18

size
intensity/passion
financial resources
access to lawmakers

Question 19

Pluralist theory

Answer 19

interest groups are good for America:
many groups can compete and balance each other out and force compromise
no one group has dominance

Question 20

HYPER-pluralist theory

Answer 20

Interest groups are BAD
- too many interest groups are trying to influence policy
-politicians try to appease both sides and leads to conflicting policy

Question 21

POWER ELITE theory

Answer 21

Interest groups are BAD
-policy decisions are made by a small # of super rich groups
-whoever has the money rules

Question 22

electioneering

Answer 22

interest groups influencing

Question 23

FECA stand for?

Answer 23

Federal Election Campaign Act

Question 24

public financing

Answer 24

created system where elections would be funded by the tax payers (free money to campaigns) in exchange for the campaign agreeing to certain rules

Question 25

what is the FEC?

Answer 25

Federal Elections Commission
-created as kind of a police force for making sure campaigns were following the new rules

Question 26

FEC responsibilities:

Answer 26

enforce:
-disclose campaign finance info to the public
- enforce limits on contributions
- oversee the new public finance system

Question 27

Buckely V. Valeo

Answer 27

says:
-congress setting limits on contributions is OK
congress setting limits on expenditures is NOT OK
- 1st amendment says you can spend money

Question 28

Hard money rules:

Answer 28

-must disclose name and amount of $$
- amount of money you can donate is limited to 2500$ to each candidate per year

Question 29

Soft money rules:

Answer 29

(donations made to party committees)
- money limit is 30,800

Question 30

DARK money

Answer 30

donations made to SUPER PACs rather than candidates or parties

Question 31

Dark money rules:

Answer 31

unlimited anonymous moneys

Question 32

Bipartisan campaign Reform act / Mccain-feingold

Answer 32

• limits attack ads and close loopholes
  -limit/stop big soft money donations
  -stand by your ad
  -stop non candidate ads 60 days prior to general election

Question 33

“i’m [insert candidate] and i approve of this ad”

Answer 33

Stand by your ad provision

Question 34

McConnell V. FEC

Answer 34

-says limiting non candidate ads 60 days before election is a violation of freespeech

Question 35

Citizen United V. FEC

Answer 35

-BCRA and FECA are unconstitutional
- disclosure of contributions is ok but gov can’t ban individuals/PACSs making expenditures
- Corporations are people

Question 36

501(c)4

Answer 36

• non profit tax-exempt groups
  -doesn’t disclose donors
  -super PACs use them to hide their money

Question 37

SUPER PACs

Answer 37

-can’t coordinate with campaigns
-can spend unlimited amounts of money on their own
-raise unlimited amounts of money from any source