10.3 Paying for Election Campaigns Civics and Economics

Running for Office Campaigns convince the public to vote for a candidate Once nominated candidates spend months campaigning Each campaign has a campaign organization to help run the campaign; local candidates have a few workers, presidential campaigns have thousands

Running for Office Campaign workers acquaint voters with the candidate’s name, face, positions on issues, and convince voters to like and trust their candidate

Canvassing Candidates or campaign workers travel through neighborhoods asking for votes, or taking polls

Canvassing At the local level, candidates go door-to-door to solicit votes and hand out campaign literature; at the national level, campaigns conduct frequent polls to find out how their candidate is doing

Endorsements When a famous and popular person supports or campaigns for a candidate The idea behind endorsements is that if voters like the person making the endorsement they may decide to vote for the candidate Andy Griffith, waving supported Beverly Perdue (in red) in the 2008 NC gubernatorial race

Endorsements Endorsements are a propaganda technique Propaganda= an attempt to promote a particular person or idea Candidates use propaganda techniques to try to persuade or influence voters to choose them over another candidate

Advertising and Image Molding Political advertisements allow a party to present only its candidate’s position or point of view They also enable a candidate to attack an opponent without an opportunity to respond

Advertising and Image Molding Candidates for local election may use newspaper advertisements or posters; state and national candidates spend a great deal of money advertising on television

Campaign Expenses Campaign expenses include TV commercials, travel expenses, salaries of campaign staff, fees to campaign consultants, and computer, telephone, postage, and printing costs A small-town mayoral race may cost only a few hundred or thousand dollars; a state legislative or congressional race may cost several hundred thousand or more, presidential races can cost hundreds of millions of dollars

Federal Election Campaign Act (1971) To place some controls on campaign financing: Required public disclosure of spending Limited hard money donations Spending limits

Federal Election Campaign Act Created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer election laws and monitor spending

Buckley v. Valeo The government could set limits on campaign contributions to keep corruption out of elections

Public Funding The Presidential Election Campaign Fund allows taxpayers to designate $3 of their taxes to go to public funding for candidates Major-party presidential candidates can qualify to get some of this money to campaign in primary elections if they have raised $100,000 on their own

Public Funding After the national conventions, the two major-party candidates receive equal shares of money, as long as they agree not to accept any other direct contributions Third Party candidates can also qualify for this funding if their party received more than 5 percent of the popular vote in the previous election

Political Action Committees (PACs) are organizations set up by interest groups to collect money to support candidates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_action_committees

Soft Money Donations given to parties and not for a candidate’s campaign There are no limits on these contributions By law this money is used for general party-building purposes

The McCain-Feingold Act The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act Prohibits political parties, federal officeholders, and candidates from raising soft money Corporations, unions and interest groups are banned from running ads aimed at a candidate for federal office within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary It raises limits on contributions, stating candidates may collect up to $2,500 per donor in each election; political parties can collect $25,000 per donor

New Law Upheld McConnell v. FEC (2003) the McCain-Feingold Act is constitutional

Looking to the Future Candidates now want to get many small donations rather than a few large ones; as a result, the internet will play a larger role in political fundraising