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I) Campaign Spending
A) spending on campaigns has been growing to outrageous heights
a) in 1960, the spending was estimated at $175 million (total of all candidates running)
b) the 2016 election has spent an estimated $2 billion
(i) this number reflects only the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates,
not 3rd Party or any Congressional campaigns
II) Sources of Funding
A) Private and Public Sectors
a) small contributors- usually $5-10 from individuals
b) wealthy individuals or families- large donations usually ranging from $50,000-5
million
c) candidates- wealthy candidates (almost all of them) can self fund
d) PAC- political action committees are generally funded by special interest groups
(i) SuperPACs are less regulated and can funnel unlimited amounts of money, while
PACs are limited by the FEC
e) temporary organizations- spring up solely to support a specific candidate
B) Why People Give
a) small donations account for very little, but give people a stake in the election
b) large scale donations are generally given to gain favor or to influence future
legislation
III) Regulating Campaign Finance
A) various laws have passed limiting the contributions that can directly be given to
candidates
a) PACs are also regulated, but have a higher limit they can spend on candidates
b) SuperPACs have no limit and very little regulation
IV) Federal Election Commission (FEC)
A) administers all law dealing with campaign finance
B) has four primary jobs
a) Disclosure Requirements
(i) cannot donate directly to the candidate of more than $100 per person
(ii) can only donate through a campaign committee
1 all spending and donations must be reported by committee
(iii)also places time limits on when to report spending
b) Limits on Contributions
(i) before Citizens United, corporations were forbidden from donating to campaigns
(ii) no individual can donate more than $1,000 to a campaign, $5,000 to a PAC, or
$20,000 to a Party
1 these limits do not apply to SuperPACs
(iii)PACs
1 since corporations can't give much directly to candidates, they used to use
PACs and set up dummy corporations that funneled their money
2 SuperPACs allow them to avoid even having to set up the dummy
corporations
c) Limits on Expenditures
(i) most limits apply only to presidential candidates, not congressional
(ii) now that “money is free-speech,” there are almost no limits on what money can
be spent on in an election
d) Public Funding
(i) allows for people to add as little as $3 to their tax return to go to Presidential
Election Campaign Fund
1 major candidates can use some of this money in their campaigns
using this money actually puts more limits on spending, so some wait to
ask for it until after the limit is passed
C) Loopholes
a) there have been so many loopholes worked into the laws, today elections are basically
billion dollar industries
(i) using these loopholes, candidates have raised more money than previous
candidates in each election since 1976
5- Political Parties
Describe how the Republican and Democratic Parties switched ideologies during the 1930s