Transcript Paying For Election Campaigns

Paying For Election Campaigns
Chapter 10
Section 3
Key Terms
• Propaganda: An attempt to promote a particular
person or idea
• Soft Money:Donations given to political parties
and not designated for a particular candidate’s
election campaign
• Political Action Committees (PACs): Political
organization established by a cooperation, labor
union, or other special interest group designed to
support candidates by contributing money
• Incumbent: A politician who has already been
elected to office
Running for Office
• Americans spend $3
billion on elections every
four years
• Takes a lot of money to
run successful campaign
• Each campaign has a
campaign organization
– May have a many as a few
or thousands of workers
Running for Office cont.
• Campaign workers
must acquaint voters
with the candidate
• Strategies used:
– Canvassing
– Endorsements
– Advertising and Image
molding
– Campaign Expenses
Canvassing
• Asking for votes
• Taking public opinion
polls
• Door to door
– Hand out literature
– Ask for votes
Endorsements
• Famous or popular person
supports a campaign
• Why is this useful?
– If voters like the person
making the endorsement
they may decide to vote for
them as well
• Endorsements are
Propaganda
– Used to persuade voters to
choose them
Advertising and Image molding
• Time and money used
to create right image
for candidate
• Political
advertisements allow
party to present its
candidate’s position
• Also to attack
opponent without
opportunity to respond
Advertising and Image molding
cont.
• Newspapers
• Posters
• Television ($$$)
– Television tend to stay
in people’s minds
longer
– Effective way to win
votes
Campaign Expenses
• Television:
– Costs tens of thousands per minute
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Airfare
Other transportation
Salaries for campaign staff
Fees for consultants
– Pollsters
• Computer, telephone, printing costs
Financing a Campaign
• Methods established by Congressional
legislation and Supreme Court decisions
• Reform how candidates raise money has led
to changes in law
Federal Election Campaign Act
(FECA)
• 1971
• Controls for campaign financing
• Amended in `74, `76, `79
– Established rules
• Required disclosure of candidate spending
• Limited hard money
– Amount individuals could donate
Federal Election Campaign Act
(FECA) cont.
• `74 Amendment
– Created Federal Election Commission (FEC)
• Monitored spending
• Administered laws
• Candidates and parties must keep records of
contributions
• Must report all contributions over $200
Public Funding
• FECA:
– Created public funding for presidential elections
(Presidential Election Campaign Fund)
– Lets taxpayers give $3 of tax return to go to fund
– After national conventions major parties split the
money
• Cannot accept other direct contributions
• Third parties can receive some if they received 5%
of popular vote in previous election
Soft Money and PACs
• Most election money
comes from private
sources
– Hundreds of millions
• Sources:
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–
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Citizens
Corporations
Labor unions
Interest groups
Political Action Committees
(PACs)
• FECA limited direct
donations from PACs
PACs
• To avoid FECA restrictions:
– Candidates can seek soft money
– Can come from individuals or PACs
– No limits on contributions
• Soft money supposed to be used for:
– voter registration drives
– Mailings
PACs cont.
• Congress has discussed
reforming campaign
finance law
• PACs gave most of their
money to incumbents
• However, many
lawmakers were reluctant
to change the rules
• Why?
Campaign Reform
• 2002: Campaign Reform Act
– Prohibits parties, federal officeholders, and
federal candidates from raising soft money
– Restricts broadcasting political ads
– Raises limit on hard money
• Raise $2000
Homework
• Chapter 10 Section 3 Worksheets #128-131
• Chapter 10 Section 3 questions
– Pg. 250
– 1-6 answer thoroughly