1. Chapter 17
Elections and Voting

2. 17-1
Election Campaigns

3. Key Decisions
• What consultants to use
• What issues to focus on
• Whether to run a positive or
negative campaign
• What states to concentrate on
• Where to spend the money

4. Federal Election Campaign Act
(FECA)
• Created in response to Nixon and Watergate
scandals; huge illegal contributions from
large corporations.
• Designed to make candidates responsive to
the public rather than wealthy supporters.
• Also to allow public officials to focus on their
jobs rather than non-stop fund raising.

5. Federal Election Campaign Act
(FECA)
• Federal Election Commission (FEC) created.
• Disclosure: candidates required to disclose
the SOURCE of campaign contributions and
list their EXPENDITURES.
• Public funding: available for presidential
primaries and general elections, in exchange
for accepting campaign spending limits.
• Limits on contributions.
• Originally there were expenditure caps.

6. Supreme Court Decisions
• Limits on how much individuals may
contribute to their own campaigns are
unconstitutional.
• Campaign expenditure limits are
unconstitutional.
• Contribution limits on non-candidates
okay.
• Spending cap in exchange for public
financing okay.

7. New Federal Contribution Limits
per election cycle (2 years)
Individuals:
$2,300 per candidate
$5,000 per PAC
$10,000 per state or local party
committee
$28,500 per national party committee
$108,200 aggregate total
PAC’s
$5,000 per candidate
$5,000 per state or local party committee
$15,000 per national party committee

8. Public Financing
Primaries
• “Matching funds” for first $250 of
contributions IF candidate raises at least
$5,000 in each of 20 states AND limits
personal spending to $50,000.
• 2000 – Nine candidates got matching
funds; only Bush and one other opted out.
General Elections
• Grant of about $85 million IF candidate
agrees to not accept private funds and limit
own contribution to $50,000.

9. Third Party Public Financing
• Third party candidates can only
receive federal funding if their party
got 5% of the vote in the previous
election.
• 1992 – Ross Perot got 19% of the
vote, received public funding, spent
$60 million of his own money.
• John McCain
• 2000 - Ralph Nader got almost 3%
of the vote.

10. Ways to get around FECA
• Hard money – money donated to candidates or
political parties that is limited to a certain amount
per individual or PAC.
• “Soft money” – money contributed to a party for
“party building activities”; could be unlimited in
amount and given by anyone: labor unions,
businesses, or wealthy individuals
• “Party building activities: Get-out-the-vote, issue
advocacy advertising, “vote democratic” or “vote
republican” type advertising, etc.
• Issue advocacy advertising – advertising related to
an issue, that helps a candidate.
• Issue ads cannot say “vote for so and so” nor can
they be coordinated with a candidate’s campaign;
but they may mention a candidate’s name.

11. Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act of 2002
• Political parties may not raise or spend “soft
money.”
• “Hard money” limits raised.
• Issue oriented ads that mention a candidate’s
name may not be aired within 30 days of a
primary election or 60 days of a general
election.

12. Recent Elections
2004
• Both candidates opted out of public matching
funds for PRIMARIES and raised $500
million.
• “Snowball effect” started with Steve Forbes.
• 527 groups spent $400 million (about 25
individuals gave $146 million to 527 groups).
2008
• It appears that the leading candidates will opt
out of public financing for BOTH the primary
and general elections and raise over a billion
dollars.

13. 527 Groups
• Non-profit groups, named after part of the
tax code.
• They have taken over much of what “soft
money” used to be spent on.
• There is legislation pending that might curb
527 groups, but it keeps being amended.

14. Public Financing Problems
• Not enough money.
• Not early enough, due to earlier primaries.
• Fund may become insolvent.

15. Political Slang
• Pundit – an expert who provides commentary
• Maven – Yiddish word for “expert”
• Blog – web log – online journal
• Vlog – web log using video as its primary format
• Hack – writer paid to write quick, low-quality
articles or books
• Flack – publicist
• Wonk – nerd, expert, overly studious person
• Neocon – neoconservative

16. Political Slang
• The Beltway – Washington, D.C. and adjoining
suburbs of Virginia and Maryland enclosed by the
I-495 freeway
• The Hill – hill upon which the Capitol and some
adjoining neighborhoods are located

17. 17-3
Influences on Voters

18. More Propaganda
• Ad homonim attack – attack on a person
rather than debating the issues
• Straw man – creating a misrepresentation of
an opponent’s argument that can be easily
refuted, and then refuting it