2.2 Campaign Process and Finance - Lecture Outline

 

The Campaign Process

 

  • Elections

    1. Primary Election

      1. Conservative or Liberal to get nominated

    2. General Election

      1. Move to the center to get elected

  • Campaign Staff

    1. Volunteers

      1. Get out the vote (GOTV)

    2. Professional Staff

      1. Campaign Manager

      2. Finance Chair

  • Pollster

  1. Communications Director

  2. Press Secretary

  3. Internet Team

    • Howard Dean

    • Barrack Obama

  4. Campaign Consultants

    1. James Carville, Clinton, Mary Matalin, Bush

 

  • Campaign Media- Get out the message and control the message.

    1. Paid Media

      1. Political Advertisements

        • Spot Ads

          • History of Political Ads- http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

          • Positive Ads

          • Introduce Candidate, family, issues, positions

          • Negative Ads

            • Voters vote against a candidate so negative ads influence this vote.

          • Contrast Ads

            • Comparison of candidates and issues

          • Inoculation Ads

            • Candidate promotes an issue that his opponent will use as a negative ad.

  1. Free Media

    1. News generated by the host of television, radio, and internet news agencies

  2. New Media

    1. Internet, Facebook, Robocalling, Twitter,

  • Control the Media

    1. Isolate the Candidate

      1. Reduce the chance for bad press

      2. Reporters want Open Access

    2. Stage the Media Events

      1. Create Sound Bites

      2. Stay on Message

  • Create events that place the candidate in a positive manner and will be run on TV.

  1. Spin the Media

    1. Construct a positive message to any negative or contrary report on a candidate

    2. Any comment not challenged within 24 hours becomes a truth.

  2. Circumvent the Media

    1. Appear on The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Oprah

  3. Debates

    1. These are constructed events designed to show the candidate in an intelligent and positive light.

    2. Candidate prepare for debates for a long time

  • Practice sessions in front of camera’s to maximize impact

  1. Disaster

    • Poland is not under Soviet Control- Ford

    • Bush I looking at his watch

  • Campaign Finance

    1. Public Money

      1. Public Matching Funds- Partial public funding is available to Presidential primary candidates in the form of federal matching payments.

      2. Candidates seeking their party’s nomination to the Presidency can qualify to receive matching fundsby raising at least $5,000 in each of 20 states.

  • Only contributions from individuals are matchable, and while an individual may contribute up to $2,500 to a candidate in the 2011-2012 election cycle (a change included in the BCRA of 2002 increasing the limit from $1,000),only $250 of an individual’s contribution can be applied toward the $5,000 threshold in each state, and only $250 of an individual’s contribution is ever matchable.

  1. Primary election candidates must also agree to an overall spending limit and spending limits in each state.

  2. For the 2008 primary season, the "base" spending limit was $42,050,000 ($50,460,000 with added expenditures).

  3. If you take Public Funds you agree to the spending cap.

  • Third Party Candidates can get Matching Funds if they gain a minimum of 5% of the vote. They receive this money AFTER the election

  • Private Money

    1. Go To Open Secrets for a complete analysis of Campaign $$$ http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php Links to an external site.

    2. Soft Money- is contributed to the political party as a whole. Historically, "soft money" referred to contributions made to political parties for purposes of party building and other activities not directly related to the election of specific candidates. Because these contributions were not used for specific candidate advocacy, they were not regulated by the Federal Election Campaign Act

    3. Hard Money- is contributed directly to a candidate of a political party. It is regulated by law in both source and amount, and monitored by the Federal Election Commission.

    4. The Watergate Scandal is the watershed incident to change Campaign Finance Law. The Nixon Administration aggressively violated and circumvented campaign finance law in the 1972 Election.

 

 

  1. Campaign Finance Reform History

    1. Tillman Act (1907) was the first legislation in the United States prohibiting monetary contribution to national political campaigns by corporations. Following the presidential election of 1904, charges were made against the victor, Theodore Roosevelt Links to an external site., regarding his acceptance of corporate contributions to his campaign.

      • Corrupt Practices Act (1910,11,25)

      • Hatch Act (1939)

      • Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

      • These acts collectively:

        • Limit the influence of wealthy individuals and special interest groups on the outcome of federal elections;

        • Regulate spending in campaigns for federal office; and

        • Deter abuses by mandating public disclosure of campaign finances

  1. Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA)(1971)-

    • Disclosure requirements

    • Public funding of presidential elections

    • Federal Election Commission (FEC) (created in 1974 in response to Watergate)

      • Independent federal agency that enforces campaign laws

    • Buckley v. Valeo (1976) –SOFT MONEY

      • Case upheld a federal law which set limits on campaign contributions, but ruled that spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech, and struck down portions of the law. The court also stated candidates can give unlimited amounts of money to their own campaigns.

      • only speech that expressly advocated the election or defeat of a candidate could be regulated. Thus organizations could spend unregulated "soft money" for a variety of activities, including "issue advertising Links to an external site.," a broad term that included any advertising that stopped short of expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate through words and phrases such as "vote for," "vote against," "support," "defeat," or "elect".

      • Parties lobbied FEC to expand use of Soft Money to Include

      • Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) 2000-(McCain-Fiengold Bill) Bans Soft Money

        • The BCRA would ban national party committees from the acceptance or use of Soft Money

        • Objectives of the Act:

          • The increased role of soft money Links to an external site. in campaign financing, by prohibiting national political party committees from raising or spending any funds not subject to federal limits, even for state and local races or issue discussion;

          • The proliferation of issue advocacy ads Links to an external site., by defining as "electioneering communications" broadcast ads that name a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days of a general election, and prohibiting any such ad paid for by a corporation (including non-profit issue organizations such as Right to Life or the Environmental Defense Fund) or paid for by an unincorporated entity using any corporate or union general treasury funds.

            1. Stand By your Ad provision- “I endorse this ad”

  1. McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)

    • Supreme Court upholds BCRA against claims that it violates free speech as set out in Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

 

 

  1. Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (2010)

    • Strikes down issue advocacy clause of BCRA

    • Justice Kennedy in the majority; prohibition of all independent expenditures by corporations and unions was invalid and could not be applied to spending: "If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech." He also noted that since there was no way to distinguish between media and other corporations, these restrictions would allow Congress to suppress political speech in newspapers, books, television and blogs.[ Links to an external site.

  2. Hard Money Regulation

    • See contribution limits below.

    • In kind contributions to a candidate can be considered Hard Money

  • Political Action Committees (PAC)

    • There are over 4000 PAC registered with the FEC

    • a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a matter of state and federal law. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act Links to an external site., an organization becomes a "political committee" by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election

      • A PAC can give no more than $5000 per candidate per election (primary, general, special) and $15,000 per year to each of the units of the National Parties.

      • A PAC that only contributes to a single candidate has lower spending limits

      • A multi-candidate PAC’s give to multiple candidates

    • Connected PAC - established by businesses, labor unions, trade groups, or health organizations. These PACs receive and raise money from a "restricted class," generally consisting of managers and shareholders in the case of a corporation and members in the case of a union or other interest group

    • Non-Connected PAC- Groups with an ideological mission, single-issue groups, and members of Congress and other political leaders may form "non-connected PACs". These organizations may accept funds from any individual, business PAC or organization

    • Super PAC -independent-expenditure only committees," which can raise unlimited sums from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as wealthy individuals, but must operate independently of candidates and cannot contribute to individual candidates. Donors must be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.

      • [SuperPac’s are a creation of 527 groups from Speechnow.org v. FEC in response to Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (2010)]

    • Leadership PAC- s a political action committee established by a member of Congress to support other candidates. Under the FEC rules, leadership PACs are non-connected PACs, and can accept donations from an individual, business or other PACs. While a leadership PAC cannot spend fund to directly support the campaign of its sponsor (through mail or ads), it may fund travel, administrative expenses, consultants, polling, and other non-campaign expenses. It can also contribute to the campaigns of other candidates.

 

  • Exceptions to Rules- Issue Ads and 527 Organizations( A correction from the text)

    • Spending on overhead and administrative costs, grassroots activities such as political education activities and get out the vote (GOTV) actions are not limited.

    • Courts have limited the political speech of parties and political organizations to include the following as expressed advocacy for a candidate which can only be funded by Hard Money.

      • “Vote for”

      • “Vote against”

      • “Elect”

      • “Support”

    • By leaving the “magic words” out of the ad, an organization may pay for the ad with Soft Money.

    • A 527 group is created primarily to influence the nomination Links to an external site., election Links to an external site., appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. Although candidate committees and political action committees Links to an external site. are also created under Section 527, the term is generally used to refer to political organizations that are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission Links to an external site. or by a state elections commission, and are not subject to the same contribution limits as PACs Links to an external site.. However, on September 18, 2009, the Federal Appeals Court in Washington, D.C., ruled that these groups have a First Amendment right to raise and spend freely to influence elections so long as they do not coordinate their activities with a candidate or a party.

    • These groups may NOT act for or against a candidate. They are limited to advocate on behalf of a political issue.

    • Circumvent- the 527’s created “sham ads” about how a candidate related to an issue.

      • John Kerry- Swiftboat Veterans for Truth.

 

 

Campaign Finance Limitations

 

To each candidate or candidate committee per election

Hard Money

To national party committee per calendar year

Soft Money

To state, district & local party committee per calendar year

To any other political committee per calendar year[1] Links to an external site.

Special Limits

Individual
may give

$2,500* Links to an external site.

$30,800* Links to an external site.

$10,000
(combined limit)

$5,000

$117,000* Links to an external site. overall biennial limit:

National Party Committee
may give

$5,000

No limit

No limit

$5,000

$43,100* Links to an external site. to Senate candidate per campaign

State, District & Local Party Committee
may give

$5,000 (combined limit)

No limit

No limit

$5,000
(combined limit)

No limit

PAC(multicandidate )may give

$5,000

$15,000

$5,000
(combined limit)

$5,000

No limit

PAC(not multicandidate) may give

$2,500* Links to an external site.

$30,800* Links to an external site.

$10,000
(combined limit)

$5,000

No limit

Download The Campaign Process.pdf