Pamphlet Project: “Campaign Finance Guidelines”
Running for political office is expensive. Candidates for president need millions of dollars to run their campaigns.Their costs include office rent, assistants, campaign literature, radio and television broadcasts, and traveling expenses. Where does all this money come from?
Until 1974, political campaigns were paid for entirely with private contributions. Many campaigns are still paid for this way. Voters are urged to contribute to the political party of their choice. Business groups, labor unions, and many other groups also contribute to the political party that they believe best represents their interests.
Political parties work hard to raise money. Several times a year, they hold large fund-raising events. The money raised at these events goes into the party’s treasury and is used to pay election campaign expenses.
Whenever large campaign contributions are made, however, people worry about corruption. Will a big contributor receive special favors in return for helping the winning candidate? To lessen the possibility of political corruption, the U.S. Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1972.
The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) requires every political candidate in federal elections (campaigns for Congress or president) to report the name of every person who contributes $200 or more in a year. The law also limits individual contributions to candidates to $1,000 for primary elections and another $1,000 for general elections.These provisions are enforced by the Federal Election Commission. However, much attention has been given recently to what is known as soft money. The FECA still allows various individuals and groups to make huge contributions to political parties. In theory, such soft-money contributions cannot be spent on federal campaigns.However, it is very difficult to monitor how these contributions are actually spent.
Assignment is below, above statement is for you own benefit
Pamphlet Project: “Campaign Finance Guidelines”
Create a pamphlet explaining the guidelines you would suggest for federal financing of presidential campaigns.
- how presidential campaigns are publicly funded
- the advantages and disadvantages of federal financing