SENIOR EXPIRIENCE

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PAC = Political Action Committee

OR Peculiar Acts with Currency

PACS first appeared in

the 1940s. Traditionally, PACs represented businesses, labor
unions, or ideological
interests (Warren
2011). An organization's PAC solicits
money from the
group's employees or
members and makes
contributions in the
name of the PAC to
candidates and political parties.
PACs often pay for
commercials.
As a way to support
a candidate, the
videos sometimes
call out, slam ,or
attack the opposing
candidate.

There are limits to the

amount PACs can
spend. PACs cannot
give more that $5,000
per election, per candidate and cant give
more than $15,000
each year to a national party.
Individuals cant give
more than $5,000 per
year to a PAC, but individual citizens can
give money directly to
parties and candidates. Individuals can
only donate up to
$30,800 to a national
political party committee and can only
donate up to $2,500
per election to a single
candidate. (Warren
2011)
To make conflict of

interest not happen,

there were laws that
prevent an individual
from paying a politician directly to vote a
certain way. Instead,
an individual can donate to their campaign
fund. Money in a campaign fund is the money used by candidates
to advertise themselves for re-election.
The laws state how
the campaign fund
money can be used.
For example, it cannot
be used for personal
purchases.
However, in 2010, the
Citizens United v. the
Federal Election Commission Supreme
Court Decision was
settled with a 5 to 4
vote. As a result of
this decision, the government can no longer place restrictions
on election spending
by corporations. It
was declared that
banning or limiting the
amount of money corporations could spend
on elections was a
form of limiting free
speech. So now, the
wealthy people that
had limits before, can
donate as much as
they want with no lim-

its to the Super PACs.

Soon after, this ruling

benefited conservative republicans. Super PACs supporting
conservative republican candidates and
issues spent the most
money in 2010, and as
a result, Republicans
became the majority
in the house.
A Super PAC is not
officially authorized by
a candidate/political
party. They are organizations that try to
persuade the public
on certain issues.
They are not officially
under the control of a
candidate, but they
work closely with the
candidate during their
campaign. The candidates/candidates campaigns are not in control of these Super
PACs, so Super PACs
can say whatever they
want in commercials
and such. Since they
are not supposed to
work directly with the

Soboroff, J. [TakePart]. (2012, May 4). Super PACs - What Are They? Civics in a Minute TakePart TV [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/DmQ37zm7-uU
Warren, C. (2011, Sept. 19). How Super PACs Work. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from http://people.howstuffworks.com/super-pac.htm

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PACs Continued
candidate, the commercials created by the Super PACs can even say
things a candidate doesnt like.
Commercials can be made for or
against any political candidate
without their permission.
(Sobohoroff 2012)

amount of money people could

donate in the first place. However,
this was pretty much sidestepped.
By using Super PACs, politicians
are following the laws but ignoring
the purpose, point, and spirit of
the law.

Not only can Super PACs receive

unlimited amounts of donated
money, they are also not required
to list who their donors are. So,
commercials dont have to say
what individuals or corporations
provided the funding for the ad:
just the name of the Super PAC.

Because of this, people

with lots of money are
able to influence laws of
the country. They can get
laws passed that other citizens may not really want
or need. This can make a
conflict of interest occur.
Elected representatives
are not perfect. They are

The whole point of the original

laws on PACs was to limit the

human and can be swayed and

influenced by things other that
persuasive arguments and altruism" (Constine 2014). So if a group
or individual gives money to representatives, it might convince them
to vote for something they may
not have otherwise voted for.

Lets look at some

INTERESTING Super PACs!

MAYDAY.US
A Harvard professor created a Super
PAC...to stop Super PACS. The super PAC
crowd surfed 5 million dollars which was
then matched for a total of 12 million
dollars. Over 47,000 people donated.
The group said that it would use the
money to support candidates that are
committed to serious campaign finance
reform. The creator, Lawrence Lessig,
thinks big tech companies should be
interested in stopping PACs because
cable companies and politics are so interconnected. We have no protection
for network neutrality because of the
enormous influence of cable companys
money in the political systemIf NN is
your issue, then this is why you should
see that politics is your issue
too. (Constine, 2014)

COLBERT SUPER PAC

Stephen Colbert, the
TV show host, started
a Super PAC. While
easily dismissed as just
simply comedy, his
actions do a really
good job at pointing
out the flaws in this
funding system. The
(Burkett, Madame Tussauds: Stephen Colbert)
commercials created
by the Colbert Super
PAC are funny, but still totally legit. He was able to
legally create the Super PAC, get funding, involve
other candidates, all while showing accurately how
the campaign fundraising system works.

Burkett, K. (Photographer). (2012, Dec 21). Madame Tussauds: Stephen Colbert [Web Photo]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinwburkett/8307780820/
Constine, J. (2014, July 05). Lessigs mayday hits $5m fundraising goal to elect pro-campaign finance reform politicians. Tech Crunch, Retrieved from http://
techcrunch.com/2014/07/05/mayday-campaign-finance-reform/