THE CAMPAIGN PROCESS
Chapter 14
OConnor and Sabato
American Government:
Continuity and Change
THE CAMPAIGN PROCESS
In this chapter we will cover
The Structure of a
Campaign
The Candidate or the
Campaign:
Which Do We Vote For?
Modern Campaign
Challenges
Contributions and
Expenses
Campaign Finance Laws
The Structure of a Campaign
All political campaigns can be viewed as a series of several campaigns that
run simultaneously.
Do We Vote for the
Candidate or the Campaign?
The most important
factor in any campaign is the candidate (he/she is even more important than
money).
Campaigns are able (most of the time)
to downplay a candidates weaknesses and emphasize her strengths.
However, even the best campaigns cannot put
an ineffective candidate in the win column most of the time.
Most people vote for a
candidate not the campaign.
Campaign Challenges
Contributions and Expenses
Campaigns
are VERY expensive.
House
races can cost over $1 million but usually cost $400-700,000 for incumbents,
less for challengers.
Senate
races cost much more.
All
political money is regulated by the federal government under the Federal
Elections Campaign Act of 1971, 1974, and 1976.
Campaign for the Senate, 2002
Soft Money
Soft money is money with
no limits or rules that is raised and spent outside of federal election
guidelines.
Soft money is often used
to pay for ads that do not expressly advocate the election or defeat of a
particular candidate.
As long as these ads do
not use the words vote for, elect, vote against or the like, ads can be
paid for with unregulated soft money.
Many argue that the huge
infusion of unregulated soft money has destroyed the federal campaign laws.
FECA - Individuals
FECA
limits individuals to contributions of $1,000 per election, per candidate
($1,000 in the primary and another $1,000 in the general election).
Individuals
may give a maximum of $25,000 in gifts to all candidates combined in any
calendar year. Individuals may also give up to $20,000 to a party each year.
FECA - PACs
PACs may donate $5,000
per candidate, per election.
There are over 4,000
PACs registered with the FEC.
PACs gave over $200
million to congressional candidates in 1996 (individuals gave $444 million).
FECA - Parties
Parties
also donate money to candidates. The Republican and Democratic parties give
tens of millions to congressional candidates.
Wealthy
members of Congress and state legislatures often also donate monies to
candidates of their party.
Some
members of Congress establish their own PACs to give money. Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey has a
PAC.
Personal Contributions
In
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) the Supreme Court struck down limits on
personal campaign spending.
Spending
your own money on your campaign is a free speech right.
Steve
Forbes, Ross Perot, and other wealthy Americans have taken advantage of their
personal wealth in their quest for office.