Presidential CampaignFinancing

2012 Election Campaigns

Republican Mitt Romney vs. Democrat Barack Obama

$2.4 billion dollars spent by the campaigns

2.4 billion is a large number…

How many school busses could you fill with 2.4 billion pennies?

How many school busses could you fill with 2.4 billion pennies?

12!

How many miles would 2.4 billion pennies stretch if they were stacked

on top of each other?

How many miles would 2.4 billion pennies stretch if they were stacked

on top of each other?

2368.8 milesLake Geneva – Tampa – and back

Fundraising in 2008

• 2 times that raised in 2004• Obama set a record for fundraising - $745

million – most ever raised by a presidential candidate

• McCain also set a record for the most money raised in a single day - $7 million the day after he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate

Where does all this money come from?

In an ordinary election…Less than 1% of Americans donate more than

$200 to a candidateLess than .1% of Americans donate more than

$1000 to a candidate

… So where does the money come from? What do these donors expect in return?

What is a PAC?• Political organization established by a

corporation, labor union, or other special-interest group designed to support candidates by contributing money

• Often create political advertisements that support a candidate, but they cannot coordinate with a particular

candidate’s campaign

What is a “Super PAC”?• The U.S. Supreme Court decided in Citizens

United in 2010 that corporations are people with First Amendment rights to free speech… and money is speech… so they can raise unlimited funds to campaign for candidates. They cannot coordinate with the candidate,

however.• Super PAC spending• Debate about Super PACs

What is a “Super PAC”?• SuperPAC Advertisement• "King of Bain" Super PAC Advertisement• Super PACs allow special interest groups to

run advertisements for or against a particular candidate, while

operating separately from any of the candidates.

Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC

In an effort to point out how silly he thinks Super PACs are, Stephen Colbert has created his own Super PAC that actually ran an advertisement in South Carolina prior to the primary election there on January 21st

Mitt the Ripper