THE CAMPAIGN PROCESS
Chapter 12
O’Connor 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.
The Nomination Campaign
The General Election Campaign
The Personal Campaign
The Organizational Campaign
The Media Campaign
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
candidate’s 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
The News Media
Campaign Financing
Televised Debates
Individual
Contributions
Handling the Press?
PAC Contributions
Personal Contributions
Party Contributions
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 Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act (2002), Formerly the Federal
Election Campaign Act.
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.
BCRA - Individuals
• FECA limits individuals to contributions of
$2,400 per election, per candidate ($2,400 in
the primary and another $2,400 in the general
election).
• Individuals are limited to a total of $115,500 in
gifts to all candidates, political action
committees, and parties combined per two yearyear election cycle.
BCRA - PACs
• PACs may donate $5,000 per candidate, per
election.
• There are over 4,000 PACs registered with
the FEC.
• PACs gave over $359 million to
congressional candidates in 2006 (individuals
gave $785 million).
BCRA - Parties
• National Parties can give up to $5,000 for a
House member in the general election and
$39,900 to a Senate candidate.
• 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. Former Republican
Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich had 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.