Term
| Political Action Committee (PAC) |
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Definition
| A private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a matter of state and federal law. |
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Term
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Definition
| Money any person or group can give to an individual candidate or party, but there are limits. |
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Term
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Definition
| Amount of hard money a corporation or an individual can give to a party. |
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Term
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Definition
| Amount of hard money a PAC can give to a candidate. |
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Definition
| Amount of hard money a person can give to a candidate. This changes based on the inflation clause. |
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Term
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Definition
| Money spent by an independent party to fund a separate campaign for a candidate. IT IS NOT GIVEN DIRECTLY TO THE CANDIDATES. |
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Term
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Definition
| Unaffiliated interest groups. They start at letter writing, move to demonstrations then protests and finally give highly valued opinions. |
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Term
| Campaign Finance Reform Act |
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Definition
2002
Placed new restrictions on soft money. Stated that ads may only be placed 30 days before the primary and 60 days before general elections. McCain pushed this through and it came back to bite him. |
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Term
| Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act |
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Definition
2002
Bans all soft money from going directly to the political parties. Individual donations were increased from $1,000 to $2,000. Individual donations can give $25,000 to parties. |
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Term
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Definition
1978
Former Executive/Legislative Branch officials cannot lobby for interest groups for two years after leaving the government. |
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Definition
1995
Legislative/Executive Branch officials must register and report issues worked on and donations received. |
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Term
| American Bar Association (ABA) |
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Definition
| Influences judicial appointments more than any other interest group. |
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Term
| American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) |
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Definition
| Files lawsuits that most would not take, such as Reno v. ACLU (Porn on library computers). |
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Term
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Definition
| Literally translates as "friend of the court." This is a legal term referring to someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers information or an opnion on a point of law. |
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Term
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Definition
| A term related to how a higher court decides which cases to hear. |
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Term
| Federal Election Commission (FEC) |
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Definition
| Controls the money raised by the people for the presidential candidates. When a person renews their dirver's license, they are asked if they would like to donate $1 from their tax $s to the presidential fund. This money is doled out as matching funds. If a candidate accepts the money, then the amount of outside money they can raise is limited. |
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Term
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Definition
| Court case stating that candidates can use as much of their own money as they want for their campaign. |
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