Topics on the Page

Congress of Industrial Organizations poster, Ben Shahn (1946)

 

U.S. Presidential Debates

 

Campaign Financing and Money in Politics

• Citizens United Supreme Court decision
• SuperPACS
• Dark Money
  

 

Proposals for Campaign Finance Reform

 

• Small Donor Public Financing of Elections
  

 

 

 

U.S. Presidential Debates

 

  Link to American Presidential Debates

 

 

  For more on the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, link to Policies and Events Leading to the Civil War

 

 

Campaign Financing and Money in Politics

 

Four Ways to Fund a Presidential Campaign, FiveThirtyEight (July 16, 2015)

 

• Big Money/Big Donors
• Some Money/Big Donors
• Some Money/Small Donors
• Self-Funding
  

 

10 Things Every Voter Should Know about Money-in-Politics, OpenSecrets.org 

 

 

Cost of Elections, OpenSecrets.org

 

Money in Elections Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does, Suzanne Robbins, University of Florida (October 29, 2018)

 

• $1.2 million—average amount spend by a candidate for the House of Representatives in 2016

 

• Republicans and incumbents spent more than challengers
• The more a challenger spends, the more likely she/he is to win
  

 

• $978 million—spending from major political parties and SuperPACs for House and Senate races in 2016
  

 

Politicians Finance Campaigns in 2 Basic Ways 

 

• Contributions by Individuals
• Outside Spending by groups from party committees to SuperPACs and Dark Money organizations
• SuperPACs and Dark Money organizations do not have to disclose their donors
  

 

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

 

• The 5 to 4 majority maintained that political speech is indispensable to a democracy, which is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation.

 

• In dissent, Justice Stevens argued that corporations are not members of society and that there are compelling governmental interests to curb corporations' ability to spend money during local and national elections
  

 

Lesson Plan on the Citizens United case from Bill of Rights Institute

 

 

Follow the Money:  Understanding 'Super Pac' Spending in Politics, The New York Times Learning Network

 

 

 

 

Campaign Finance Laws:  An Overview

 

 

 

Map from National Council of State Legislatures

 

Overview of State Laws on Public Financing of Elections

 

• 14 states provide some form of public financing (SOURCE:  National Council of State Legislatures)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super PACS

 

• Super PACs may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals, then spend unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates

 

 

Data on Campaign Finance, Super PACs, Industries and Lobbying, from OpenSecrets.org

 

Stephen Colbert's Super Pac Lessons:  Long Story Short, NBC News

 

• Stephen Colbert and the Role of Political Satire, Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

 

 

Dark Money

 

• Dark Money is political spending meant to influence the decision of a voter, where the donor is not disclosed and the source of the money is unknown

 

Dark Money Basics

 

 

 

Defining Propaganda

 

The American Historical Association contends there are many kinds of propaganda, "from selfish, deceitful and subversive effort to honest and aboveboard promotion of things that are good" (Defining Propaganda I)

 

 

 

 

Proposals for Campaign Finance Reform

 

Small Donor Public Financing, from Brennan Center for Justice

 

• Small donations are matched and multiplied to help re-direct candidates’ attention from moneyed interests to ordinary citizens.
• A $50 donation in a five-to-one matching system, for example, is worth $300 to the candidate.

 

 

The Case for a New Small Donor Public Matching Funds System

 

• Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Adelson gave a total of $297 million during the past four elections to Super PACs to support Republican candidates.

 

 

Should There Be Taxpayer Funded Elections?

 

The Small-Donor Antidote to Big-Donor Politics, Center for American Progress (June 11, 2018)  

 

• Examples from New York City, state of Connecticut, District of Columbia and Seattle 

 

Three Problems with Taxpayer Funding of Election Campaigns, CATO Institute (January 16, 2019)