candidates of various offices of government elected. Many candidates have had tremendous success through the efforts of much needed monetary contributions to their campaign. Contributors range from unions‚ religious leaders‚ organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD)‚ the National Rifle Association (NRA)‚ and senior citizens groups. When these groups‚ known as special interest groups‚ donate to candidate’s campaign‚ they expect the candidate to respond to their issues. Because special
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Any campaign finance reform must be structured within the framework of the Constitution. When examining the role of the government in situations of participation in political processes‚ the role as the protector of rights and privileges as identified in the Constitution must be weighed against its role as a regulator of the political process. A primary principle of the First Amendment is to protect and encourage the rights of individuals and organizations to participate in our civic process
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Campaign Finance Reform Effective election campaigns have always relied on the candidates’ ability to raise money. Even in the days before television‚ radio and the internet‚ it still took money to get the word out to the people in a far-flung land. However‚ today’s candidates are faced with raising larger and larger amounts of money with each new election that comes along. Individuals are the primary source of campaign funding at the federal level‚ with political action committees running
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The effort to change the way money is involved in campaign financing has been a common theme in American politics‚ even in non-election years. Since the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1972‚ many people have had the opinion that much more had to be done to reform the way money was involved in politics‚ especially in elections. The focus for many is on the federal elections‚ pointedly the presidential elections. A few weeks ago‚ the United States House of Representatives took the first step
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Why has Campaign Finance Reform in the USA proved Difficult? There have been many attempts to reform the campaign finance since the 19th Century and before the reform was introduced‚ there were concerns over the amount of money being spent by individual candidates in the run up to an election and the actual presidential elections. In 1974‚ under President Ford‚ the Congress passed significant amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act creating a way to regulate campaign contributions and spending
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and spend within a campaign. In order to enforce fairness between candidates‚ Congress created the Federal Election Committee (FEC)‚ making the government the superior source of funds for Presidential elections. The FEC restricts the amount of money an individual can donate to a candidate and the amount that can be indirectly contributed. Some would object to these limits because they feel that government money could be better spent on other issues rather then on the campaign and supporters should
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and outline Topic: "Campaign finance reform and the Citizens United Case." The paper will discuss what campaign finance reform looked like prior to and following this case‚ as well as the reasons for unlimited spending on political activities being damaging to democracy. It will also discuss the ideas for reversing the Citizens United case‚ the steps taken towards this so far‚ and the likely outcome based on current evidence and events. I. Introduction In 2010‚ the decision made in Citizens United
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As one can see‚ campaign finance reform has been around for a while‚ not that many people were really aware of it until the Citizens United v. FEC case of 2010. Citizens United was founded in 1988 by a Washington political consultant‚ Floyd Brown who received major funding from the Koch brothers‚ industrialist who own the secondly largest privately owned company in the US (Mayer‚ 2010). They gained fame by suing the Federal Election Commission (FEC)‚ leading to a notorious Supreme Court case which
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Ksenia Novikova Campaign finance reform is the issue of our lifetime. While we may point to climate change‚ gun control‚ economic inequality‚ the underlying problem is the influence of money in politics. Our representatives are focused on winning elections‚ instead of addressing constituent concerns. They have to specifically focus on spending the majority of their working time calling donors‚ and raising money for their campaigns‚ that this puts their real job on hold. Time spent calling people
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Controversy has already erupted over the financing of the 2008 presidential campaign with experts projecting costs to exceed $1 billion (Sciffman). Candidate Hillary Clinton raised $8.5 million during only three events‚ surpassing the old record set in 2004 by John Edwards‚ who collected $7.4 million in three months (McAuliff). Vast amounts of money is being spent and raised on campaigns‚ and efforts to curb fundraising and spending have had only limited effects. Serious questions are being asked about
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