Essential Acronyms of Campaign Funding

Good Wednesday, all! As promised MO Funds, MO Votes is presenting you with a fresh new entry. Tonight’s blog shall be focusing on the core aspects of campaign financing, with a bit of emphasis on the particular Missouri laws.

One key area of financially supporting a candidate’s campaign is the use of Political Action Committees (PACs).  PACs are political committees that are organized purely for the purpose of obtaining and spending funds to either support or defeat candidates in an election.  Nearly every major campaign has utilized these committees, since their inception in 1944, in order to help their candidate achieve victory. PACs come from a wide variety of sources, such as, businesses, labor unions, trade organizations, or even ideological associations. Although they might come from different backgrounds, they must all operate under the same procedures. When looking at their contribution restrictions, PACs are held to $5,000 dollars for each candidate committee each election (primary, general, or special), $15,000 a year to any party committee, and only $5,000 a year to any other PAC (Contributor Limits) . These restrictions set up a system that requires any major election to utilize a great many PACs that may want to support their cause and it also establishes a system that evokes equality as no one committee is allowed special privilege over another.

A second  area of financial support is the PAC’s companion the 527.  These groups get their name from an Internal Revenue Service’s code which grants tax-exempt status to political groups at all levels of government. 527’s are different from PAC’s because they have no monetary restrictions. Because these non-profit groups are regulated by the IRS and not the FEC (Federal Election Commission) there are no limits on donor contributions or spending.  The groups avoid being regulated by the FEC by not advocating the election or defeat of a specific candidate. The groups successfully convey their messages through ads which depict the candidates in either positive or negative ways.  A 527 group that gained fame in the recent past were the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. This special interest group strongly opposed Kerry in his campaign for presidency in 2004. The group ran many TV ads that claimed to have the “real story” on Kerry’s military tour.

For more information on 527s check out Public Integrity and Open Secrets.
For more information on PACs check out  The Federal Election Commission  and Open Secrets


Did you know that? If you are interested in donating to a campaign in Missouri, there is a
one hundred cash limitation and a twenty-five anonymous cash limit! All donations require
proper contact information.

Missouri Campaign Support - State & County Funding

MO Funds, MO Votes

Welcome back, our cherished readers! To start off this week, we will be looking at a general overview of the funding for Democratic Campaigns, from Missourians at the county and state levels.  

First, let’s take a look at the amount of contributions for the Democratic Candidates from the 2006-2010 elections from the state of Missouri altogether (see Figure 1). As we can see, the figures reflect the feelings of the public as they shift over an administration change. In 2006, President George W. Bush and his administration had control at the national level, this figure shows that this control clearly affected the amount of funding; local supporters were willing to dish out to their democratic candidates. Looking now at the local support from Adair County (Figure 2), we can see that Adair had an even more significant jump in support after the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and the support is still growing as these figures were taken from September, 13, 2010. This shows that as goes the support at the national level, so goes the support for the local level, essentially, we can see that the funding is more prevalent in a time of national prowess by that political party. 

However, it is also important to know that the support for the Republican candidates has been significantly consistent in the state and the county of Adair for quite some time; this makes the boost in Democratic funding that much more interesting to follow as the 2010 elections fall in. You can check out more figures like the ones from today’s blog and more by visiting the Open Secrets – Missouri webpage!

Figure 1

Figure 2

Check back on Wednesday night as we discuss the detailed rules and restrictions that apply to Missouri Campaign funding and advocacy.

*All facts, figures, and statistics referenced in this blog have been obtained from the Federal Election Commission through Open Secrets *

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to MO fund, MO votes. It's our goal to provide to you with information about the 2010 Missouri Democratic candidates’ advocacy groups and fundraising. Essentially, this means that we will be taking a look at who are the financial backers of these candidates as they push through the 2010 local elections.

The campaign trail is a long and arduous journey to the election date. It requires strict organization, many dedicated members, and a lot of financial support. In the early 19th century the term “political machine” was coined to describe the critical and relentless organizational system of a party’s political campaign. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
When looking at a “political machine” through the scope of today’s campaign trail, we see that the focus of the machine (gaining and keeping power) is applicable as well. Every campaign must be run with extreme efficiency and every part of the machine must be connected in order to be both effective and successful.


Advocacy is an essential part of the machine and has many inter-connecting pieces that are absolutely crucial to every candidate’s campaign. Political Action Committees (PACs) and their non-profit counterparts, 527s, are special interest groups that raise money for a specific candidate’s campaign. These two allied parts of the “machine” create funds that make spreading the campaign’s message possible and their advocacy is extremely dependent on the relationship with candidate. We will also look at why and to what degree the major donors connect to the candidate.
For advocacy and fundraising information on specific democratic candidates, check back every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights until the election on November 2nd.

Week 1 – How much money is being spent in MO?
Week 2- US Senator (Robin Carnahan)
Week 3- State Senator (Wes Shoemyer)
Week 4- State Auditor (Susan Montee)
Week 5- Local Races (Circuit Clerk, Circuit Judge)
Week 6- State Representative (District 1) (Keri Cotrell)
Week 7-State Representative (District 2) (Rebecca McClanahan)

For a look at the Republican candidates, check out:
Show Me The Money MO GOP