Campaign Finance
For most of the twentieth century campaign finance has been dominated by political parties. This was mainly due to their control over the campaigns themselves. The parties managed every aspect of the campaign, much of it without the need for cash. Instead, the campaigning relied on services volunteered or bartered for some party-controlled favor. However, when the party needed cash it was raised, and more often than not, the cash came from the candidates. The candidate's contributions were often expected when necessary, as a condition of receiving the party's nomination. However, the candidate could not be relied on for large sums of money. In this case the parties depended on the storied fat cats, or men of wealth. Insurance executive Clement Stone and his wife Jessie are the record-holding fat cats, giving $2.8 million to Richard Nixon's first presidential victory. While some local campaigns did not use any fat cats, none were able to compete with major party campaigns. In 1928, 69.7% of the receipts of the Democratic National Committee, and 68.4% of the receipts of the Republican National Committee came from contributions of $1,000 or greater. The political dominance by the parties, and their big contributors, exten
However, recently the number of individual contributors has decreased, while the PACs are becoming bigger and bigger political contributors to candidates. * Party committees could contribute no more than $5,000 per election to a candidate. The candidates did, however, use the party specialists in the same, but somewhat more sophisticated, ways as they did the parties. A lot of cash became necessary to rent media time and the new campaign specialists. Congress also acted to build a fund for the public financing of presidential campaigns; however, it agreed to postpone spending it until 1976, in order to neutralize President Nixon's opposition. The burden of raising the much needed cash fell to the candidates, and along with the change of financial responsibility, the fat cats became as important for the candidates as they were for the parties. These committees were unaffected by the limits. Watergate did not only affect the federal campaign's financing. Including political money laundered to conceal its illegal origins, secret and unreported funds, and funds raised in exchange for certain government action. Media involvement took a whole new importance in campaigning. " However, on the other side of the spectrum, there are many who support and participate in campaign financing. So, Congress acted to cap the rising costs of campaigning by attacking spending on the media. Among many other illegal and controversial activities that were taking place in Washington, were the "gamy stories of illegal campaign money", as put by Jeffery H. Congress took its first step to reform in 1907, in reaction to growth in political power and new corporate wealth. It was the first attempt at an integrated system of regulation for congressional and presidential campaigns.
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Acceptance Essays
