Campaign Finance Reform

How has the court looked at campaign finance before, during, and after the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) and what effect will it have on political campaigns? In this paper, I will examine the case history of campaign finance and discuss its impact on current campaign finance reform. I will discuss the impact of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act on how campaigns are financed in today's political arena and its consequences on the campaign process of future elections.

There are a few specific players, in the realm of campaign finance, that constitute a majority of all campaign contributions and expenditures. The main actors are individual donors, political parties, and corporations in conjunction with the Political Action Committees (PACs) they form. I will discuss the actors and their relation to issue advocacy and express advocacy as well as independent or coordinated expenditures.

Much of the first campaign finance legislation that was written was a reaction to the "spoils system" that was rampant in the political arena. Loyal party affiliates would donate money to the party in exchange for jobs, thus creating the spoils system. In addition to employee contributions, parties would solicit contributions from corporations. The 1907 Tillman Act was one of the first pieces of legislation to address the issue by prohibiting federal corporations or banks from donating money to any candidate. The Tillman Act was extended to include prohibitions on contributions from labor unions as well, angering the labor unions. In response, they created their own PACs that were separate from their treasury funds so they could easily raise money and support their candidates. (Comeau, 2003, 257.)