Campaigning and Fundraising

Running for Congress

Requires intense individual effort.
- Fundraising, speeches, advertising, etc.
- No one helps you
Winning your first election is the hardest.
- Once in office, incumbency boost kicks in.
  - Sophomore surge - second time they run, their votes surge up
    - Get more funding and more press
  - Franking Privilege - congressperson don’t have to pay to send mail back to their districts, so once you’re in congress you can send mail to everyone in your district to campaign (as long as it’s not obvious campaign mail)

There is no public funding source for Congressional and senatorial races.
Many congressional candidates rely more on PACs and large donors (who give more than $200)
- PACs can’t give more than $5,000 and can only help the campaign, can’t give directly to the candidate
In many cases, the candidates for House and Senate seats will use their own personal funds

Get Noticed - be seen in the party as a possible candidate. typically do this by slowly working their way up the government and proving themselves (not always, there are nontraditional pathways)
Get Nominated - win party primaries and caucuses to secure the nomination at the convention.
Get Money - raise funds through donations, party contributions, public or private sources.
Branding - create a tone and message of your campaign. build up ‘vibes’. create a feeling about them rather than their policies and what they stand for.

Modern campaigns are Candidate Centered.
Party power is structurally weak and Presidential candidates have become the center of political identity.
The Candidate becomes the message more than individual policies.

A candidate can contribute unlimited funds to their own campaign
Candidates can “loan” their own campaigns money and be repaid later with campaign funds.
Candidates, political parties, and PACs must report on the money they raise and spend to the Federal Elections Commission.
If you take the public funds you cannot take any private funds.

Created to give campaign contributions directly to candidates
Corporations cannot contribute directly to PACs but can sponsor a PAC for employee donations
Annual donations are limited to $5,000 from individuals, whose names and contributions must be disclosed.

2 Forms of PAC spending

Individual Expenditures
- Spending by PACs, corporations, or labor unions that is done to help a party or candidate but is done independently of them.
  - typically directly for candidates running for office
  - sometimes called hard money because the money has to be tracked (like in how it was used)
Soft Money
- Funds obtained by political parties that are spent on party activities, such as get-out-the-vote drives, but not on behalf of a specific candidate
  - can happen between election cycles
  - called soft money because money can be given and does not need tracked

Named for the section in the tax exempt code
- 527 are non-taxable entity
527 groups can run political ads with unlimited individual and corporate contributions
Must disclose donors to the IRS
- downside of 527 groups - don’t want everything to be known/public or the repercussions of the IRS

Landmark case creating Super PACs
Citizens United, a lobbying group, wanted to air a film critical of Hillary Clinton and advertise the film during national television broadcasts in the 2008 election
SCOTUS voted (5-4) that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting political spending by nonprofit corporations