Political action committee

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In the US, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect or defeat government officials or to promote or defeat legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a matter of state and federal law. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, an organization becomes a "political committee" by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election.

When an interest group gets directly involved within the political process, a PAC is created. These PACs receive and raise money from the special group's constituents, and on behalf of the special interest, makes donations to political campaigns.

Contributions by individuals to federal PACs are limited to $5000. Corporations and unions may not contribute to federal PACs, though they may pay for the administrative costs of a PAC affiliated with the specific corporation or union. Corporate and union affiliated PACs may only solicit contributions from executives, shareholders and their families (in the case of corporations) or members (in the case of unions). "Independent" PACs not affiliated with a corporation or union may solicit contributions from the general public but must pay their operating costs from these regulated contributions.

Federal Multi-candidate PACs are limited in the amount of money they can contribute to other organizations:

  • at most $5,000 per candidate per election. Elections such as primaries, general elections and special elections are counted separately.
  • at most $15,000 per political party per year.
  • at most $5,000 per PAC per year.

Under federal law, PACs are not limited in their ability to spend money independently of a candidate campaign.

Contents

[edit] Categorization of PACs

[edit] Political Money Line

PoliticalMoneyLine uses the following categories for PACs (The latest totals are available here):


[edit] Leadership PAC

A leadership PAC in U.S. politics is a political action committee that can be established by a member of Congress to support other candidates. The funds cannot be spent to directly support the owner of the PAC's own campaign (such as mail or ads), but may fund travel and make contributions to other campaigns. During the 2006 election cycle, 256 leadership PACs contributed over $37 million to federal candidates.[1]

[edit] Controversial use of Leadership PACs

  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership PAC, Team Majority, was fined $21,000 by federal election officials "for improperly accepting donations over federal limits."[2]
  • Rep. John Doolittle's leadership PAC, Superior California Federal Leadership Fund, pays his wife's single-person company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, 15 percent of all money raised ($68,630 in 2003-2004, $224,000 in 2005-2006). A campaign committee report in February said Doolittle's campaign still owed Julie Doolittle $137,000.[3] The PAC also has purchased $2,139 in gifts for Bose Corporation.[4]
  • Rep. Richard Pombo has used his leadership PAC to pay hotel bills ($22,896) and baseball tickets ($320) for donors.[5]

[edit] 2004 Presidential election

In the 2004 elections, the top 10 PACs by money spent by themselves, their affiliates and subsidiaries were as follows:

  1. EMILY's List $22,767,521
  2. Service Employees International Union $12,899,352
  3. American Federation of Teachers $12,789,296
  4. American Medical Association $11,901,542
  5. National Rifle Association $11,173,358
  6. Teamsters Union $11,128,729
  7. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $10,819,724
  8. National Education Association $10,521,538
  9. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees $9,882,022
  10. Laborers' International Union of North America $9,523,837

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Opensecrets: Leadership PACs, Retrieved on January 23 2007.
  2. ^ USATODAY.com - Pelosi PAC fined $21,000 by federal elections officials
  3. ^ Politics - FBI raids Doolittle house - sacbee.com
  4. ^ Political Action Committees
  5. ^ Lawmaker Criticized for PAC Fees Paid to Wife - washingtonpost.com

[edit] External links

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