How Political Parties Are Organized

How Political Parties Are Organized To work effectively, political parties must be well organized: Leaders, committees, workers to carry out programs Able to raise money to pay for expenses Nominate candidates and plan campaigns to get these candidates elected

Party Committees Each party has committees at the national, state, and local levels National committees plan the party convention where presidential and vice presidential candidates are chosen National committees publish/distribute party literature and arrange for campaign speeches Help presidential candidate campaign for the election

Party Committees State committees represent the political party in each state Work to raise money for campaign and help candidates win elections at the state level Local committees are responsible for conducting campaigns on the local level Party’s success or failure often depends on the local committees

Local Party Organization All counties, cities, and wards are divided into voting districts called precincts All voters in each precinct vote at the same polling place

Political Party Finances Running for political office is EXPENSIVE Even local campaigns cost hundreds of thousands of dollars Up to 1974- campaigns were paid for entirely with private contributions by individuals and businesses Many campaigns are still financed this way Parties hold large fund-raising events several times a year

Political Party Finances Very large contributions make people worry about corruption Federal Election Campaign Act (1972): requires every candidate in federal elections (Congress or president) to report the name of every person who contributes $200 or more a year Also limits individuals contributions to $1,000 for primary elections and another $1,000 for general elections

Political Party Finances “Soft money”: FECA allows huge contributions to be made to the political parties themselves This money cannot be spent on the actual campaigns Very difficult to monitor how these contributions of “soft money” are actually spent Could possibly still be used to finance campaigns

Public Financing Individual Americans can choose to contribute $3 of their income taxes to a national election fund Candidates can use the money that is put into this fund U.S. Treasury distributes this money to the candidates Candidates must first raise $5,000 from private contributions before receiving this money Candidates can take the same amount from the fund that they raise privately The more money they raise privately, the more they can take from the fund If a candidate wins a nomination and uses public funds, they can no long accept private contributions The rest of their campaign must be paid for using public funds

? What do national party committees do? What are precincts? What did the Federal Election Campaign Act (1972) require? What is “soft money” and how can it be a problem? How does the national election fund work?