$ Money $

Funding (in General):

PAC (Political Action Committee)- Political arm of an interest group entitled to raise funds from members, stockholders, and employees.

Bundling- Tactic in which PACs collect contributions from like-minded individuals (each limited to $2,000) to a candidate or political party.

527 Group- Organized under section 527 of IRS code that may accept/spend unlimited amounts of money on election activity, as long as any ads are run in:
--last 30 days of primary elections
--last 60 days of general elections

Soft Money- Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for "party-building purposes." Banned (made illegal) after 2002 election by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

Independent Expenditure- Political activity intended to assist or oppose a candidate for office made without their cooperation, approval, or direct knowledge.

Issue Advocasy- Unlimited/undisclosed spending by individual or group on communications that do not use words like "vote for" or "vote against."

Money in Kerry's Run for Office:

-He and George Bush raised nearly half a billion dollars in private contributions during the primary season.
-Received 74.6 million in government funding for the General Election, and in turn, could not raise or spend private funds after accepting nomination.

Spent: $309,708,090 (less than winning Bush)

527 Groups: got rather controversial!
-MoveOn.org
-The Media Fund
-America Coming Together
-America Votes

PACs (especiall MoveOn.org) played large role in attack ads and gave democrats advantage over republicans in media

Top organizations:
University of California
$622,925
Harvard University
$355,359
Time Warner
$305,824
Goldman Sachs
$303,250
Citigroup Inc
$288,631

Independent Expenditures: none reported