Download Campaign Finance: Historical Overview and Modern Regulations and more Study notes Political history in PDF only on Docsity! Campaign Finance • Last time • History of campaign finance legislation • The dynamics of fundraising and campaigning Last time: elections • Constitution reserves selection procedures for electors to the state governments (most are winner-take-all) • majority rule (270+) in Electoral College, backed up by unit-rule majority election in House – see http://www.vote- smart.org/election_president_electoral_college.php • Electoral College is population-weighted, but with a small bias in favor of small states (one vote for each member in H or S, CA has 55) Early efforts at Regulating campaign money • Regulatory efforts go back to the 1867 Naval Appropriations bill – prohibited fed. officers/employees from soliciting donations from naval yardworkers • 1883: Pendleton Act, prohibited soliciting by fed. workers of fed. workers; prohibited “political” removals for largest classes of fed. employees • 1907: Tillman Act, prohibited corporations and banks from making direct donations to fed. candidates • 1939: Hatch Act, prohibited fed. employees from participating in campaigns or contributing • 1947: Taft-Hartley Act, prohibited labor unions from making contributions Modern regulations • 1971 FECA – disclosure requirements; self-financing limits; per-voter cap on TV advertising spending • Pipefitters Union v. U.S. (1972) clarified union rights to establish PACs • 1974 FECA Amendments – created FEC; contribution limits; spending limits; public financing of prez. elections for “major” parties only; enforcement teeth • Sun Oil case (1975) and Buckley v. Valeo (1976) • 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act The basics • Hard money: donations by individuals, parties or PACs to candidates or parties or PACs (who then give to candidates or parties) – individuals now limited to $2,000 per candidate per election (primary, general, special) up to $37.5K per 2- year cycle; multi-candidate PACs limited to $5,000 – individuals can give up to $25K to national party, $10K to each state/local party, $5K to each PAC; $95K aggregate limit (excludes state/local parties) – PACs raise money from individuals, who are capped in totals they can give to parties and PACs • Soft money: Independent expenditures and issue advocacy spending. Donations to and expenditures by “527” committees are unlimited. Can’t be “coordinated” with hard-money committees.
