POLI 100B CONGRESS
28 February 2006


  1. Congressional Elections

    1. Voters, Candidates, and Issues (Erikson and Wright, Ch. 4 D & O)

    2. Stewart Chapter 5 -- Voter Choices

    3. Progressive Ambition

    4. Campaign Contributions

      1. History:

        • 1907 Tillman Act banned direct campaign contributions from Corporations

        • 1947 Taft-Hartley Act banned direct campaign contributions from Labor Unions

        • 1950s - 1960s -- Labor Unions formed Political Action Committees (PACs). The first was COPE -- Committee on Political Education by the AFL-CIO.

        • 1971 -- Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and the 1972 Court decision Pipefitters Local # 562 v. U.S. legalized PACs

        • 1974 -- FECA Amended in response to Watergate Abuses

        • 1976 -- Buckley vs. Valeo -- Supreme Court Strikes down many provisions of FECA

        • 1979 -- Amendment to FECA allowed Party Committees to accept and spend unlimited amounts of money during election campaigns for "getting out the vote" efforts or voter registration drives.

        • 1995 -- Parties Permitted to make Independent Expenditures

        • 2002 -- McCain Feingold Reforms

        • 2004 -- Rise of the 527 Groups

      2. Campaign Spending By Winning House Candidates



      3. Campaign Spending By Winning Senate Candidates



      4. The Cost to Defeat a House Incumbent, 1984 - 2000



      5. Spending on House and Senate Campaigns: 1982 - 2002 (Real Dollars)



      6. Soft Money Receipts by Party: 1992 - 2002 (Real Dollars)



      7. Gini Coefficient for Individual Campaign Contributions: 1980 - 2002



      8. PAC Contributions by Ideology, 2002. L = Labor, C = Corporate, T = Trade, N = Unconnected, U = Unknown, V = Cooperative, W = Corporation Without Stock



      9. Recent Origins of the Current Mess: Buckley vs. Valeo, 1976



      10. McCain-Feingold -- Contribution Limits



      11. McCain-Feingold -- Spending Limits



      12. McCain-Feingold -- Impact on Open-Seat Candidate Receipts



      13. McCain-Feingold -- Impact on Democrat/Republican Candidate Receipts



      14. McCain-Feingold -- Impact on Individual Contributions to House Candidates



      15. McCain-Feingold -- Impact on Party Fund Raising



      16. Stewart Figure 6.9 -- Why Incumbents Love the System (even after McCain-Feingold)