Campaign Finance: How do candidates get their money to run for office?

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Campaign FinanceHow do candidates get their
money to run for office?

• Academic Civics

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Washington on Campaign Spending

• 28 gallons rum
• 50 gallons rum punch
• 34 gallons wine
• 46 gallons beer
• 2 gallons cider royal
• There were only 391 eligible voters in his
  district!

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Lincoln on Campaign Spending

• I did not need the money. I made my own
  entertainment, being at the houses of friends,
  cost me nothing and my only outlay was 0.75 for
  a barrel of cider.

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How much did it cost to run for president? (2012)

• Barack Obama (D)

• Mitt Romney (R)

887 million (up 520 million from 2004)
777 million (up 410 million from 2004)
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What do they spend the on?
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Where does that come from?

• Individual contributions
• To parties (per year)
• To individual candidates (per election)
• Political Action Committees (PACs)
• Super PACs
• FEDERAL LAWS RESTRICT HOW MUCH MONEY CAN BE
  SPENT FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE

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Individual Contributions

• Federal Law limits individual people to spending
• 30,800 to a political party per year
• 2,500 to a candidate per election

Senators John McCain (left) and Russ Feingold
(right), authors of the law that limited campaign
spending.
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Political Action Committees (PACs)

• Interest groups who contribute to candidates
• Mostly centered around a certain issue (labor,
  business, environment, etc.)
• Donation Limits
• Can give 5,000/election to a candidate
• Can give up to 15,000/year to a political party
• Required by law to report spending

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So how do these guys get to contribute so much?
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Super PACs

• Federal law requires that and PACs spend no more
  than 20,000 per year on an election for a
  candidate
• Super PACs spend billions per year. How so?
• Rather than donate it to a specific party or
  candidate, they spend unlimited amounts of money
  for general purposes
• Phone calls
• Pamphlets/billboards/signs
• Etc.

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Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow

• Super PAC created by Stephen Colbert as a parody
  of the ridiculous campaign spending
• Raised over 1.8 million in donations

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Super PACs

• Liberal agenda
• Priorities USA (66m)
• Majority PAC (37m)
• Women Vote! (7.5m)

• Conservative Agenda
• Restore our Future (142m)
• American Crossroads (104m)
• Freedom Works for America (19m)

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Super PACs
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Super PACs
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Super PACs
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PACs vs. Super PACs

• PACs
• Can only donate
• 5,000 per candidate per election
• 15,000 to a party per year
• Money given directly to candidates
• Must report their donations

• Super PACs
• Can donate unlimited amounts of money
• Money cannot be given directly to candidates
• Can be spent to publish information about a
  candidate
• Donations can be anonymous to

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Questions to consider

• 1.) Do you agree with the limits on individual
  and PAC contributions? Or should they be
  unlimited like Super PACs?
• 2.) Obama and Romney raised over 2 billion this
  election, a record in the history of US
  elections. Should there be an overall limit on
  the amount they raise? Explain.