-
Soft Money Increases in Campaigns
At this point up until Watergate, the amount of soft money skyrocketed in campaigns. -
Federal Elecition Campaign Act
FECA established regulations for federal primary races and general elections. These regulations included limits to individual contributions, increases public disclosure of campaign receits. Candadites must report donations of $1,000 or more. -
Watergate
Watergate represented the first revealed scandal dealing with campaign finance. Richard Nixon used campaign donations to pay men to break into the Democratic National Headquarters to steal campaign secrets. He claimed executive privilege. This was the catalyst to campaign finance reform. -
Federal Election Commission
The FECA was amended after Watergate to create the FEC. The FEC severely limits individuals can contribute to federal candadites and places spending limits on federal elections. -
Buckley v. Valeo
This significant case ruled that Congress cannot limit the amount of money candadites spend on their own campaign because such restrictions violated the First Amendment's freedom of speech. -
McCain-Feingold/Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The BCRA addresses the financing of political campaigns by regulating soft money (2,500 per candadite and 5,000 per PAC) and restricting issue ads near elections (no ads 60 days before election). The act faced many legal attacks which reduced the severity of the act. It also allowed policial parties to use independent expenditures to act independent of the candadite. This lead to wealthy people giving lots of money to 527 groups. -
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission
McConnel argued that the McCain-Feingold violted your First Amendment rights; however, the Supreme Court ruled that limiting soft money contributions does not violate the First Amendment. It confirmed that the governent had the power to limit campaign donations. -
Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc.
Supreme Court ruled that the part of th Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that prohibited non-profit and other corporations from airing certain advertisements within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days before a general election violated the First Amendment as applied to the activities of Wisonsin Right to Life. -
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
The FEC wanted to prevent Citizens United from using a film about Hillary Clinton as a donation to her campaign. The documantary violted the BCFA principle of not showing the film 30 days before the primary or 60 days before the general election. The film crew claimed that FEC violated their right to freedom of speech. The Supreme Court ruled that campaign finance reform is unconstitutional because corporations have the right to donate money because it is part of their freedom of speech.
