Campaign Finance

1
Campaign Finance Political Speech

• Political speech inseparable from the concept
  of self-government
• Limits
• 1907 Tillman Act
• 1910 Federal Corrupt Practices Act
• 1939 Hatch Act
• 1947 Taft-Hartley Act
• 1971 1974 Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA)
• 1976 Buckley v. Valeo
• 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act
  (BCRA)
• aka McCain-Feingold
• 2003 McConnell v FEC
• 2010 Citizens United v. FEC

2
Reforming Campaign Financing

• All have been limited by court/administrative
  decisions and changing campaign dynamics.

3
Federal Election Campaign ActFECA

• 1971 and amended in 1974
• Placed limits on certain political contributions
  and expenditures
• Required public disclosure of contributions and
  expenditures above certain levels
• Political action committees (pacs) had to
  register with the govt and report
  contributions/expenditures
• Created a system of public funding of
  Presidential campaign activities
  http//www.fec.gov/info/checkoff.htm
• Almost all candidates accepted for 20 years
  (until 2000)
• Established the Federal Election Commission (FEC)

4
Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

• Did the limits placed on electoral expenditures
  by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, and
  related provisions of the Internal Revenue Code
  of 1954, violate the First Amendment's freedom of
  speech and association clauses?

5
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) or
McCain-Feingold

• Money raised in unlimited amounts by political
  parties for party-building purposes now mostly
  illegal
• Restrictions on Electioneering Communications
• Political contributions that are limited in
  amount and fully disclosed
• Primary candidates
• Conventions
• General election
• 527s