POLI 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Campaign Finance Reform In The United States, Issue Advocacy Ads, Federal Election Commission
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
I. Money
a. Hard money
b. Soft oey: oey o a adidates ehalf. Ca’t speifially say to atually ote for a
certain campaign
c. Campaign finance reform
i. FECA:
1. Created government entity to track campaign finance, donations to
campaign, expenditures.
2. FEC: Federal election Commission tracks this.
3. Also created limits to what people could donate to campaigns. This puts
limit on hard money.
4.
ii. BCRA: Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.
1. Goeret’s itetio to trak apaig oey did’t ork so ell,
because soft money became primary money.
2. Reform: get rid of soft money. Eliminate soft money.
a. Happens in 90s and early 2000s.
b. They increased the amount of hard money that people could
donate.
c. Started making commercials about where they got their money.
Required clarity about who paid for a message
d. Cut off a lot of the soft money channels.
i. Said this is’t legal ayore.
3. However, immediately, new ones sprung up.
a. Groups are calling themselves charities, so they no longer pay
taxes nor were they limited
d. Issue advocacy ads
e. Should we have campaign finance reform?
i. Proponents: make elections fairer by keeping bribes from happening/ expecting
things in return
ii. Opponents:
1. Finance laws violate free speech and therefore you should be able to
spend as much as you want on a campaign. Having these limits is a
violation.
f. Citizens United vs FEC
i. SC case that very simply asked this question. Should we have campaign finance
limits?
ii. In this case: SC said that spending in elections is free speech, and any entity can
spend what they want.
iii. 2010.
iv. Campaign finance laws look very similar to pre-FECA.
v. Large amounts of unlimited amounts of money. Hard money still exists. Tons of
soft money though.
vi. Hard money is still limited and tracked.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Money: hard money, soft (cid:373)o(cid:374)ey: (cid:373)o(cid:374)ey o(cid:374) a (cid:272)a(cid:374)didates (cid:271)ehalf. This puts limit on hard money: bcra: bipartisan campaign reform act, go(cid:448)er(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t"s i(cid:374)te(cid:374)tio(cid:374) to tra(cid:272)k (cid:272)a(cid:373)paig(cid:374) (cid:373)o(cid:374)ey did(cid:374)"t (cid:449)ork so (cid:449)ell, because soft money became primary money, reform: get rid of soft money. Eliminate soft money: happens in 90s and early 2000s, they increased the amount of hard money that people could donate, started making commercials about where they got their money. Having these limits is a violation: citizens united vs fec, sc case that very simply asked this question. Tons of soft money though: hard money is still limited and tracked, now new channels to spend extra money in soft money. Voting: why a(cid:373)eri(cid:272)a(cid:374)s do(cid:374)"t tur(cid:374) out to (cid:448)ote: 6 i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)es o(cid:374) tur(cid:374)out, legal obstacles, election day is on a tuesday, most places you have to be registered to vote.
