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Campaign Finance
BCRA 2002
Buckley
v. Valeo
Citizens United v. FEC
Dark Money
FECA 1974
How
bad IS this?
FECA 1971
"Unless some catastrophic event or unexpected act of God occurs, the 2016 Presidential election will be the most expensive American election to date, for money is being donated and spent in extremely large volumes and likely will not cease" (Hoffman 2016, 243).
FECA 1971
Requires every candidate or committee active in a federal campaign to establish a central committee through which all contributions and expenditures must be reported.
Created the FEC
Round
1
Public financing
Continued the preexisting bans on contributions by corporations and labor unions.
Obama and Public Financing
FECA 1974
Restrictions placed by the FECA 1971 opened up a new window. What would the required "committee" be?
Round
2
PACs
Can give up to $15,000 annually to any national party committee, and $5,000 annually to any other PAC
Can give $5,000 to a candidate committee per election (primary, general or special).
PACs
Must register with the FEC within 10 days of its formation.
Limits for individual donations to PACs were set at $5,000 per candidate, per race.
Limits for individual donations to candidates were set at $1,000.
Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
Upheld prohibitions on corporate and union electioneering spending to elect or defeat a particular candidate.
Round
3
Struck down limitations on campaign expenditures, on independent expenditures by individuals and groups, and on expenditures by a candidate from personal funds.
BCRA 2002
AKA the McCain-Feingold Bill
Banned soft money.
Prohibited issue ads funded by soft money from corporations and labor unions in the 60 days prior to a general election, or 30 days prior to a primary election.
BCRA
2002
Raised the legal limits of hard money that could be raised.
What? Huh? Why?
Corporations and unions have the same political speech rights as individuals under the First Amendment.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Struck down federal ban on corporations’ ability to advocate expressly for or against a candidate.
Super PACs
Raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals.
Super PACs
Spend unlimited sums to expressly advocate for or against political candidates.
Prohibited from donating money directly to political candidates.
"As of January 16, 2018, 2,392 groups organized as super PACs have reported total receip...
"As of January 16, 2018, 2,392 groups organized as super PACs have reported total receipts of $1,790,569,447 and total independent expenditures of $1,060,490,102 in the 2016 cycle" (opensecrets.org).
Dark Money
Political nonprofits are under no legal obligation to disclose their donors. When they choose not to, they are considered Dark Money groups.
In the shadows
Super PACs can accept unlimited contributions from political non-profits and “shell” corporations who may not have disclosed their donors
?????
Does Hansen, Rocca, and Ortiz's (2015) assessment of the effects of corporate spending differ from Hoffman (2016)?
"Wealthy individuals are more of a threat to Super PACs controlling elections than corporations ever could be because their motivations are much more direct (Hoffman 2016, 233).
But...corporations are still VERY much in the game thanks to 5o1(c)4s.