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Coming to Terms: This selection was excerpted from www.opensecrets.org.
Best Effort -- A phrase taken from Federal Election Commission regulations used by candidates' campaign committees to excuse their failure to provide the FEC with complete disclosure information concerning their contributors. For example, when only the name and address but not the employer or occupation of a contributor is given on a campaign finance form, the words "best effort" will sometimes be written in. Some states require candidates to return checks to contributors if sufficient disclosure information is not provided. Brown-Bag Contribution -- Reference to certain pre-Watergate instances of lobbyists delivering brown paper bags filled with cash to the Nixon White House. Buckley v. Valeo -- A 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the majority ruled that mandatory limits on campaign spending, candidates' spending of their own money, and independent expenditures are violations of the constitutional right to free speech and thus prohibited. The same decision upheld the constitutionality of limits on individual and committee contributions to candidates, public financing for presidential elections, and campaign contribution disclosure. The Buckley ruling applies to state and local, as well as federal, elections. Bundling -- The practice of pooling individual contributions from various people -- often those employed by the same business or in the same profession -- in order to maximize the political influence of the bundler. Typically, all of the checks collected in this way are sent or delivered to candidates on the same day. PACs and political party committees that have already given the maximum allowed by law often bundle individual contributions as a way of delivering even more money to candidates. See also "Conduit" |
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