Campaign Finance and Running for President

Citizens United, Freedom Now, and the Future of Campaign Finance Regulation: Lifted many of the restrictions placed over the past thirty years on campaign spending and contributions Allowed unlimited spending for advertising as long as they did not coordinate with a campaign Federal Appeals Court granted even more freedom to corporations, unions, individuals, and interest groups to spend money on campaigns In the case, FreedomNow.org v. FEC, an interest group charged that the FEC regulations barring spending was unconstitutional due to Citizens United The Appeals Court agreed and this led to the creation of Super PACs

Citizens United, Freedom Now, and the Future of Campaign Finance: These campaign PACs must report their donors to the FEC either quarterly or monthly Most PACs adopt innocuous name This makes it difficult for voters to know who they represent unless you look up their donor list from the FEC Ultimately, with the creation of 527s and Super PACs, what a millionaire or corporation can spend on an election has no limit While candidates have to be careful what they say, 527s and PACs can say whatever they want

What led to the creation of super PACs?

FreedomNow.org v. FEC

Running for President – The Longest Campaign: Presidential election is the culmination of two different campaigns linked by the parties’ national conventions Primary campaign lasts from January until June Until 1968, however, there were fewer than 20 primary elections for the presidency They were often “beauty contests” A presidential primary in which contending candidates compete for popular votes but the results of the popular vote do not control the selection of delegates to the national convention

Running for President – The Longest Campaign: National conventions saw numerous trades and bargains among competing candidates The leaders of large blocs of delegates could direct their delegates to support a favorite candidate

Reforming the Primaries: Primaries and conventions have changed dramatically recently Public generally control the nomination process, not elites This change began in 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to run for another term Democratic Party was going to nominate, whoever LBJ wanted, regardless, of the popular vote Disruptive riots occurred, which led party leaders to begin to think they needed to reform the process

Reforming the Primaries: McGovern-Fraser Commission studied problems with the primary system Formulated new rules for delegate selection Republicans imitated changes The biggest change was that a majority of the Democratic convention delegates would not be nominated by party elites Rather, they must be elected by the voters in primary elections, in caucuses held by local parties, or at state conventions

What determines how delegates will vote today?

Popular vote

Reforming the Primaries: No delegates can be awarded on a “winner-take-all” system All must be proportional to the votes for the contenders Delegates are normally pledged to a particular candidate but the pledge is not always formally binding at the convention Delegation from each state must include women, young party members, and minorities After conventions chose candidates who were not as strong as the party hoped for, the Democratic Party invented super delegates Comprise less than 20 percent of the delegate votes

Front-Loading Primaries: Candidates realized that winning primaries early increases their chance of winning Why? The media would instantly label the winner the front-runner, thus increasing the candidate’s media exposure and escalating the pace of contributions to his or her campaign

Front-Loading the Primaries: States began to realize that early primaries have a great impact on the outcome of the primary Thus, began to hold primaries earlier A group of mostly southern states decided to hold their primaries on the same date This is known as Super Tuesday Why? Originally, hoped to nominate a moderate at the Democratic convention Holding primaries early to impact the nomination is known as front-loading

Why do candidates care so much about early primaries?

They want to be labeled the front-runner

On to the National Convention: Each political party uses a credentials committee to determine which delegate may participate Convention a few days Candidates usually come into the convention with enough committed delegates to win One ballot to choose nominee usually

On the General Election: Begins after conventions During this time, candidates try to articulate his or her differences from the opposition in terms of party issues (different from primary) States that are likely to be close in the popular vote have been tagged as battleground states and will see intense campaigning up to the very day of the election Campaign managers determine Ohio and Wisconsin

What states do candidates not worry about?

The states that they know they will win