Interest Groups

With electing candidates, the PAC can offer anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 towards a candidate committee, or a national party committee. With money being a sole factor with the PAC, it plays as a huge role with power being that it determines influence when it comes to elections and/or legislation. Another similar Political Action Committee is known as the Super PAC, raises an unlimited amount of funds from corporations, unions, associations, and citizens. The Super PAC spends its funds towards advocating for or against political candidates at a federal level. With the unlimited amounts of money being brought to the Super PAC, they must undergo a monthly reporting of their funds to the Federal Election

Since the creation of the United States government, political lobbying has played a large role in influencing the creation and modification of laws. The act of lobbying is to solicit or try to influence the votes of members of a legislative body (Dictionary.com). There has always been controversy surrounding the political lobbying system, due to the potential of corruption through bribery. Two important pieces of legislation became laws as a result of this controversy. The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 and the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 were created to prevent potential abuse within the political lobbying system.

In the 2016 election cycle, over 1.4 billion dollars was given to presidential candidates (Federal Election Commission 2016a). This is more than any other presidential election cycle in history (Price 2016). Another billion dollars was given to U.S. House of Representatives candidates, and about 600 million dollars was given to U.S. Senate candidates (Federal Election Commission 2016b). The majority of this money went to funding the candidates’ campaigns. This money controlled whose ads voter’s saw on television and which candidates were able to afford to travel the country campaigning for votes. In many cases, the candidate with the most money available won their election. Most campaigns are financed in large part by a small number

The National Rifle Association also continues to make an impact with politics and send founding to the national parties and committees. Donations that are made to national committees rapidly increase campaign spending. The NRA is very politically active and is a large organization with over five million members. Followers of the NRA are able to make their own political donations as long as they are in regulation with campaign finance limits. There are so many members involved with the NRA; thus, political power builds immensely.

Individuals are the primary source of campaign funding at the federal level, with political action committees running a close second. Their donations are regulated donations and are referred to as “hard money.” Organizations also contribute money to campaigns but often do so indirectly in ways that allow them to skirt regulations pertaining to campaign finance.

In general, a lobbyist group is a sort of effective network system that consists from paid professionals and also volunteers, with efforts in persuasion the legislators to produce and support policies that the lobbyist groups interested. All American institutions can be represented by a lobbyist, such as Pharmaceuticals, insurance, air transport, health professionals, and others. To reach the goals of the interest group and lobbyist in persuasion in reforming policies, billions of dollars need to be spent by them. According to the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the money that paid for lobbying needs to be registered with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House. Health care lobbying is one of the big lobbyists in the United States,

Campaign finance reform is a movement in the United States to help change the involvement of money in American political campaigns (Boundless, 2015). “ Throughout the history of campaign finance reform, three main areas have consistently been the target of regulation: contributions, expenditures, and advertising. Over the years Congress has instituted limits on how much individuals or organizations may contribute to federal campaign committees and political groups, how much campaign committees may spend during the course of an election, and how much money might be used for advertising expenses during a campaign” (Smith, 2010). To help limit contributions, expenditures, and advertising Congress has passed laws which are known as campaign finance

“The Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) prohibits corporations and labor unions from using their general treasury funds to make electioneering communications or for speech that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a federal candidate.”

In a court case in 2010, Speechnow.org v. Federal Election Commission, the ability to spend virtually limitless money on an election was given under first amendment protection. With this ruling, Political Action Committees, or super PACs, have become tremendously influential when it comes to elections. Unlike regular PACs, these super PACs cannot directly donate any raised money directly to this political candidate. While these parties can not directly donate this raised money, and must be independent of the candidate they support or oppose, there is a huge debate of the unclear line involved with who can be a part of these super PACs. For example, Obama had his Republican challenger and former aides of his office supporting his super PAC.

Campaign finance regulation refers to attempts to regulate the ways in which political campaigns are funded. This includes all spending done to promote or support the promotion of candidates, ballot measures, political parties and more. Regulations can be applied to natural persons, corporations, political action committees, political parties and other organizations. They can come in the form of incentives, such as providing public financing to candidates who abide by spending limits, as well as restrictions, such as contribution limits on donors. Legislative efforts, judicial rulings and citizen initiatives have all played roles in shaping the regulation of political contributions.

In the land of politics, the more money that one has is the better. This is no exception when it comes to campaigns and elections. The goal of any political campaign is to get their nominee the votes they need to win. Whether this is through negative or positive campaign tactics, one thing can fuel a campaigns success is money. Money in a campaign means that more advertising can be bought. This is the perfect way to get the candidate seen by the public and is also a way to paint a negative picture of the other candidate. However, questions can be raised where does the money that funds campaigns or campaign advertisement come from, should there be regulations imposed to monitor where it comes from and what part of the campaign does this money fund? Questions like these and more were answered in the Supreme Court Case Citizens United Vs. Federal Election Commissions and many were not happy about this ruling.

29. i) Litigation is when people go to court in order to get a positive ruling for their cause. Interest groups use this technique to force lawmakers to change or add fair

But it is not true and that us why legislative oversight movement exists. As Lee, Johnson, & Joyce (2012) has stated when the revenues are inadequate for the disbursement for limitless expenditures, that is when legislators want to ensure the fundings are being spent well. But agencies specifically lobbyists hinders this process by pursuing policymakers to support their own agenda and invest money. For example, the NRA has a strong influence in the congress. Watkins (2013) did mention that the way this agency pursued not to implement gun control laws by stating that taxpayer money should not be utilized to promote a political agenda. This indeed struck many policy makers which caused them to ensure no policies passes in congress. Also, agencies tend to contribute to campaign finances when a legislature is running or re-running for an office to ensure they continue to have a strong influence on the

An assumption of representation is elected representatives are agents who express district preferences in legislative activities. Voters have preferences, but do not know which candidate in the election best align with these preferences; therefore, campaign communication and advertisements are important avenues that help highlight congruency of preferences between a candidate’s and voter’s positions (Krupnikov, 2011). This new electoral environment after Citizens United now has more independent campaign expenditures going toward election communications on behalf of candidates than in previous elections (Federal Election Commission, 2015). This new environment involves three primary entities for outside independent expenditures, Super PACs, traditional Political Action Committees, and political parties.

A question that is becoming increasingly relevant in the American political atmosphere is to what extent lobbyist play in the formation of American policy. Lobbyist help bring numerous issues to the forefront of American politics as well as help companies and groups obtain policies which favor their cause. According to CQ Researcher “ in 2004 a lobbying tax break bill in favor of large multinational corporations was funded through lobbyist through the sum of 1.8 million dollars , and by 2009 the bill had been reported to save over 120 million dollars for various businesses” (CQ Researcher 292). This bill passed by the extensive help of lobbyist exemplifies the sheer importance and political significance lobbyist play in American politics.