What do the sources suggest about the role

of money in politics?
“There are
two things
that are
important
in politics.
The first is
money
and I can't
remember
what the
second
one is.”
—Ohio political boss and U.S.
Senator Mark Hanna, 1895.
 Political Campaigns

• So political campaigns are a pretty big deal in the

United States.
• For instance the 2012 presidential election clocked in
at the most expensive ever - at around $6 billion
dollars!
• Needless to say, money plays a very big role in
American elections.
• So today, Craig is going to take a look at why we have
campaigns in the first place, why the campaign seasons
run for so long, and of course why campaigns cost so
much.
• Watch the video clip.
Enquiry Question: How do presidential candidates
fund their campaign?
 Learning Outcomes
• To analyse the role of campaign finance in elections
• To identify and explain the different methods of
financing campaigns
• To analyse the arguments for and against these
methods of campaign finance
 Key Definition
Campaign Finance:
• All funds raised in order to promote
candidates, political parties, or policies in
elections, referendums, initiatives, party
activities, and party organizations
• Basically it’s the process by which candidates
and political parties raise money to help
promote an issue or get a candidate elected.
 How has campaign
finance changed?
George Washington Abraham Lincoln
• 1757 – ran for seat in • Election to 7th district of
Virginia’s House of Burgesses Congress
• “the customary means of • "I did not need the money I
winning votes” made the canvass on my own
horse, my entertainment
• 46 gallons of beer being at the houses of
• 28 gallons of rum friends, cost me nothing; and
• 50 gallons of rum punch my only outlay was 75 cents
for a barrel of cider, which
• 34 gallons of wine some farmhands insisted I
• 2 gallons of cider should treat them to.”
 How has campaign finance changed?
Where does the money come from?
• In 2008 candidates for office,
political parties, and
independent groups spent
$5,300,000,000
• Over $1,000,000,000 was spent
by the two Presidential
candidates (Barack Obama &
John McCain) alone
• In 2010 the average elected
member in the House of
Representatives spent
$1,400,000 and the average
elected Senator spent
$9,800,000
• In every election more and more
money seems to be spent. BUT
WHY?
 How has campaign finance changed?
Where does the money come from?
• Individual Contributions: Donations to candidates or political parties from
individual citizens.
• As the table below demonstrates, the majority of individual contributions come
from a select few individuals who give a large amount.
 How has campaign finance changed?
Where does the money come from?
• Political Action Committees (PACs): A type of organization that pools
campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to
campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.
• Super PAC: a type of independent political action committee which may
raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, and individuals
but is NOT permitted to contribute to or coordinate directly with parties or
candidates.
• 527 and 501c4 Groups: a type of U.S. tax exempt organization created to
influence the election or defeat of candidates to office. Before the Supreme
Court decision in Citizens United V. The FEC (Federal Elections Commission)
these groups could not expressly advocate for the election or defeat of a
specific candidate, but could only promote an issue.
However, after the Supreme Court decision in 2010 these groups can directly
advertise on behalf of or against a candidate, but cannot coordinate directly
with parties or candidates.
How much does it cost to run for President?
How much does it cost to “win” the Presidency?
How much does it cost to run for President?
How much does it cost to “win” the Presidency?
 How much does it cost to run for President?
How much does it cost to “win” the Presidency?
YOUR TASK:
Read the data regarding campaign finance spending between 1960
and 2016.
• What is the general trend of the total amount of money spent
in presidential elections since 1960?
• Why do you think more money is being spent on campaigns
today than in the past?
• Is there a correlation between the amount of money spent in
an election and the winner/loser of the election?
• What do you think the candidates spend the majority of their
money on? Do you think this significantly impacts the way that
citizens vote?
• Who do you believe the majority of the money is coming from?
What might be their motives to giving money to a candidate?
 What does the graph suggest about
presidential election spending (green)?

What does the graph suggest about

congressional election spending
(beige)?

What does the table suggest about trends in

campaign spending?
• Campaigns cost a lot
of money to run.
What is campaign finance
• Everything from hiring spent on?
people to coordinate
and canvass to renting
large spaces for rallies,
paying to fuel the jet,
and T.V. and print
advertisements.
• The costs associated
are broken down into
7 categories:
1. Media- 29%
2. Fundraising- 21%
3. Salaries- 16%
4. Administrative- 12%
5. Unclassifiable- 8%
6. Strategy & Research-
7%
7. Campaign Expenses-
7%
 What is
campaign
finance spent
on?
What were the main areas of
expenditure in the 2016
election?
 Learning Outcomes
• To analyse the role of campaign finance in elections
• To identify and explain the different methods of
financing campaigns
• To analyse the arguments for and against these
methods of campaign finance
 How are campaigns financed?
• Soft money
• Hard money
• PACs
• Super PACs
• 527 groups
• Matching funds
• Political Parties
• Federal grants
• Self-financing
Watch the video clip.
Soft money This is the election campaign money goes indirectly to the candidate; money
that can not be regulated by the federal government. It is given to the parties'
Conventions
Hard money This is election campaign money that goes directly to the candidate, and it is regulated
by federal government. Individuals can give no more $2,500, and thanks to Citizens
United case, corporations can also donate this way.

PACs These are political action committees, which collects campaign donations and pools
them together to give to the candidate, to help fund their election campaign. Under
FECA, an organisation comes a PAC when it gives $1,000 to influence an election at the
federal level. These are often used by pressure groups to allow them to influence an
election, for example the NRA's PAC is called the Political Victory Fund, which it used to
fund Bush and McCain, and oppose Obama

Super PACs These are political action committees which run free from regulation of how much
money they may use, created after Citizens United v FEC. They do not donate to the
candidates or parties, but rather spend independently of campaigns- like creating
adverts for candidates, funded by the donors to the Super PAC. Super PAC donors thus
are not donating directly to the candidate or campaign; but rather to extra material to
held in the campaign. There was a rise of these in 2012 elections, for example Romney's
campaign Super PAC Restore our Future spent $40 million.

527 groups 527 groups are groups that are tax exempt, and set up to help influence an election,
federal or otherwise. Technically, PACs and Super PACs are 527 groups, but 527 groups
are ones specifically which do not declare themselves to a particular candidate; they
campaign on issues etc. For example, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, a 527, in 2004,
released a campaign video questioning John Kerry's military record.
 Federal contribution limits
• Federal law restricts how much individuals and organizations may
contribute to political campaigns, political parties, and other FEC-
regulated organizations.
• Corporations and unions are banned from donating money directly to
candidates ("hard money") or national party committees.

Candidate Committee PAC

$2,700
Individual $5,000 per year
per election

$2,000 $5,000 per year

Candidate Committee
per election

$5,000 $5,000 per year

PAC - Multicandidate
per election

$2,700[ $5,000 per year

PAC - Non-multicandidate
per election

$5,000 $5,000 per year

State, District & Local Party Committee
per election

$5,000 $5,000 per year

National Party Committee
per election[
 Are elections too
expensive?
YES NO

• These vast sums of money cut out
some candidates without the
connections to raise money.
• Money and corruption in politics go
hand in hand.
• A lot of money from election
fundraising goes towards media
campaigning costs.
• Soft money encourages high
incumbency rates in Congress.
• Third party candidates are impacted.
• The US is an extensive country and
candidates need to travel.
• Fundraising ability demonstrates
qualities about the candidate.
• The electoral process in the US is
lengthy.
• Media is essential for
communication.
• Money is important for such
important roles such as the
Presidency of the USA.
• Raising a great deal of money does
not ensure success.

YOUR TASK: Create your own table, only add a developed

explanation of each argument that is provided.
 How has campaign finance
been reformed?
Key Reforms
• Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA)
• Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
• The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002)
*also known as McCain-Feingold reforms
• McConnell v. FEC (2003) Read the hand-
out that explains
• FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life (2007) the key reforms.
• Davis v. FEC (2008)
• Citizens United v. FEC (2010)
 How has campaign finance
been reformed?
YOUR TASK: Watch the video clip and answer the following questions on the worksheet.
1. What does Quid Pro Quo mean?
2. How did candidates raise campaign 11.
funds in the “Olden Times”
3. What did the Tillmain Act (1907)
ban?
4. What did the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) 12.
ban?
5. Why did PACs develop? 13.
6. What did the FECA Act (1971) try to
do?
7. How did PACs try to get around the 14.
limits set on them by the FECA Act?
8. What did the McCain Feingold Act or 15.
the BCRA ban?
9. What are 527 groups not allowed to 16.
do in their issue ads?
10. What was the title of the movie that 17.
Citizens United created? What was
the purpose of the movie?
What part of the McCain Feingold
Act did the FEC say that Citizens
United violated by creating this
movie?
Who did the Supreme Court side
with in Citizens United V. FEC?
What connection between money
and speech was establish due to the
decision in Citizens United V. FEC?
Summarize the liberal stance on
money in politics.
Summarize the conservative stance
on money in politics.
What are SuperPACs not allowed to
do?
Where is the majority of the funding
for SuperPACs coming from?
 How has campaign finance
been reformed?
However, genuine campaign finance reform has proved elusive because:
• candidates want to spend as much as possible to gain an advantage over
their opposition, and this has led to the collapse of the presidential
election financing system in both the primaries and general election
• donors want to donate; there is apparently a widespread belief that
donations buy influence, and the bigger the donation, the bigger the
influence
• of the role of the Supreme Court and the strength of constitutional
rights to free speech, which means e.g. that TV advertising is impossible
to ban;
• Buckley made all limits on candidate expenditure (except where
federally subsided) unconstitutional and Citizens United made the
electoral activities of independent groups exempt from regulation
• of the apparent difficulty of framing legislation without loopholes, e.g.
the growth of soft money in the 1990s, the role of 527s in 2004
• of the gridlocked and ineffectual state of the FEC
 Learning Outcomes
• To analyse the role of campaign finance in elections
• To identify and explain the different methods of
financing campaigns
• To analyse the arguments for and against these
methods of campaign finance
 Structured Academic
Controversy
YOUR TASK:
• Read the hand-out “Structured Academic Controversy
Background and Context of Debate”, then choose a side you
believe most fits with your opinion.
• Divide into two groups; those who chose YES, and those
who said NO.
• Individually read the handout and complete the summary of
each section in the “summary” column of the table for your
side.
• In your group, discuss the arguments you discovered in the
reading. The group should decide on the 3 strongest
arguments that they will present during the debate.
• Choose a partner that is on the same side of the room as
you are. Move into a group of 4 with an opposing pair from
the other side.
 Structured Academic
Controversy
YOUR TASK:
• The YES group now has 2 minutes to present their arguments to the NO
group. During this time the NO group should be silently listening.
• The NO group now has 1 minute to respond to the arguments of the YES
group. However, the NO group should not begin presenting their 3
prepared arguments, just rebutting the YES group’s arguments. During
this time the YES group should remain silent and listen.
• The NO group now has 2 minutes to present their arguments to the YES
group. During this time the YES group should be silently listening.
• The YES group now has 1 minute to respond to the arguments of the NO
group. During this time the NO group should remain silent and listen.
• Lastly, the groups will have 3 minutes to work together to come to a
compromise between both of the group’s ideas and write them down to
present to the class. During this time all of you should voice your
opinion and share in creating a bipartisan solution.
 Learning Outcomes
• To analyse the role of campaign finance in elections
• To identify and explain the different methods of
financing campaigns
• To analyse the arguments for and against these
methods of campaign finance
Does money buy speech?
Why has campaign finance reform
had such limited success?
 Why has campaign finance reform
had such limited success?
The reasons campaign finance reform has had such limited success include:
• candidates want to spend as much as possible to gain an advantage over
their opposition, and are constantly exploiting the loopholes and pushing
the boundaries of legislation, e.g. the delay by Jeb Bush in 2015 in
announcing his presidential run so that he could continue raising money
for his super PAC. see e.g. http://tinyurl.com/kybawgk
• the presidential election financing system in both primaries and general
election has collapsed because candidates can raise more money outside
the system and both Obama and Romney self-financed in 2012
• donors want to donate; there is apparently a widespread belief that
donations buy influence, and the bigger the donation, the bigger the
influence
 Why has campaign finance reform
had such limited success?
• the role of the Supreme Court and the strength of constitutional rights to free
speech: Buckley made all limits on candidate expenditure (except where federally
subsidised) unconstitutional in the 1970s and more recently Citizens United
made the electoral activities of independent groups exempt from regulation and
has led to the growth of ‘super PACs’
• the difficulty of enforcing regulation, e.g. candidates are not officially allowed to
coordinate their campaigns with super PACs which are supporting them but
coordination is hard to prove, and problems of enforcement are compounded by
the ineffectualness of the FEC, whose six members are perpetually gridlocked at
3-3, see e.g. http://tinyurl.com/nkq5m6o
• lack of political will – congressional incumbents have almost always benefited
from outspending their opponents and consequently have little incentive to
introduce limitations on that spending
 Homework
Application Task:
Why are presidential election campaigns so
expensive? (15)
Preparation Task:
National Party Conventions (Bennett p62-70)
Stretch & Challenge Task
Campaign finance in the USA and the First
Amendment (Politics Review, Vol 24, No 1 2014)