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Coming to Terms: This selection was excerpted from www.opensecrets.org.
Matching Funds -- Public money given in a specific ratio (eg., 1:1, 2:1, or 3:1) to candidates who succeed in raising prescribed amounts of private money in individual contributions of a certain size. During presidential primaries, for example, the federal government will match up to $250 of an individual's total contributions to eligible presidential candidates. Also a provision in Democratically Financed Elections proposal whereby candidates who choose public financing option get additional money if independent expenditures are made against them or if privately financed opponents spend more than the public financing amount. See also "Partial Public Financing" and "Democratically Financed Elections" Maxing Out -- Making campaign contributions to candidates, PACs, and parties up to the limit allowed by law. Federal election law, for example, allows individuals to give a maximum of $1,000 per candidate per election (primaries and run-offs are counted as separate elections); $5,000 to a PAC per calendar year; $20,000 to a national political party per calendar year; and a total of $25,000 to candidates, PACs, and parties per calendar year. Major donors who max out often turn to soft-money giving. See also "Soft Money" "Let's say I know I need to raise X amount of money for my campaign. So I say: "Okay, what are the PACs I can hope to max out?" And you hope they'll decide to max out with you." -- former U. S. Rep. Jolene Unsoeld (D-Wash.) Millionaire Loophole -- The absence of any limits, in federal, state, or local campaign finance laws, on the amount wealthy candidates can contribute to their own campaigns. The U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling forbids this kind of limitation as an abridgment of free speech. "Given the vast sums of money required to run for office, increasing numbers of very wealthy people are going into electoral politics -- and winning." -- Jamin Raskin and John Bonifaz, The Wealth Primary: Campaign Fundraising and the Constitution Money Chase -- Candidates' perpetual pursuit of campaign contributions. The endless fundraising circuit, from cocktail party to executive suite to hotel ballroom to union hall, and then back to the telephone. See also "Permanent Campaign" and "Dialing for Dollars" "While I might be able to gather as much as $10 million, I would have to spend more time in the living rooms of the wealthy raising money than I could out in the communities raising issues, raising hopes and raising hell." -- former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower explaining why he chose not to run for the U.S. Senate in 1990 Money Laundering -- Making a campaign contribution to an elected official (or to a campaign committee, PAC, or political party) through one or more third parties -- as a device for disguising the source of a contribution and getting around contribution limits. For example, during 1989-1991, the Evergreen America Corp. funneled illegal campaign contributions totaling $172,000 to local and state officials in California in the form of $500 checks from dozens of Evergreen employees, friends, and relatives whom the corporation had secretly reimbursed. Money Trail -- The flow of private dollars from particular vested interests into the campaign coffers, leadership PACs, foundations, and favorite causes of particular elected officials, or groups of elected officials (such as those who sit on a particular committee). Mother's Milk-- A term coined by Jesse Unruh, Speaker of the California Assembly from 1961 to
1968. Multi-Candidate Committee -- The FEC's designation for a PAC or other political committee that has made contributions to at least five federal candidates. |
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