The article below
discusses an effort to put a harsh
spotlight on the coercive effect super PACs are having on the political
process, Ilyse Hogue, a former top official at MoveOn and Media Matters, and
David Donnelly, the Executive Director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, will
file paperwork with the FEC on Monday to formally create an entity called
Friends of Democracy. Friends of
Democracy will aim to demonstrate the need for campaign finance reform by using
its limited resources to shame the biggest donors and their recipients. The
hybrid PAC will have more operational flexibility than a traditional PAC
established as an arm of existing campaign finance non-profit.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Relevant Organizations: Federal Election Commission
Federal Election
Commission
The
duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose
campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the
limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of
Presidential elections.
Relevant Organizations: Democracy Matters
Democracy
Matters
Democracy
Matters, a non-partisan campus-based national student organization in
partnership with Common Cause, works to get big private money out of politics
and people back in.
Video: Stephen Colbert “God Bless Citizens United” Part One - Five
The videos below are a series that pay homage to comedian
Stephen Colbert and his ability to shed light on U.S. campaign finance
problems post Citizens United ruling.
Informative Article: “Stephen Colbert’s PAC Parody Explains Campaign Finance to America (Part 1)” By Paul Blumenthal and Dan Froomkin
The article below looks at a
series of videos done by Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report about Super PACs. The article looks at how
Colbert explains campaign finance legislation so that the general public can
understand it and the problems. Colbert is achieving this through setting up
his own PAC and documenting his journey of setting up a PAC and receiving
contributions. Colbert’s founding of a super PAC has revealed many of the
problems surrounding campaign finance, including “the influence of PACs and
unlimited-donation super PACs, secret contributions by big donors, the failure
of regulators, and the coordination between campaigns and supposedly
independent groups.” The article points out that “forming a PAC can be as easy
as filling out a form and asking for money.
Informative Article: “How Super PACs are influencing elections” By Richard S. Dunham
The article below gives the
example of how Super PACs are influencing elections by looking at the PAC
Campaign for Primary Accountability, started by Texan Leo Linbeck III. The
article states that “In the early months of the 2012 campaign, spending by
Super PACs dwarfed the amount spent by candidates and traditional political
parties.” Super PACs have been key in this year’s Republican primaries. The
article claims that Super PACs have “effectively eliminat[ed] contribution
limits created by Congress after the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.” The
creator of the Campaign for Primary Accountability states, “because some of the
biggest groups are taking advantage of a loophole in the law that allows for
contributions to be made undisclosed, it has created a sense that shadowy
forces are going to dominate American politics.” The article points out the
problems associated with Super PACs and their reporting of finances, along with
the need for more unaffiliated
Super PACS.
What is Campreform?
Campreform is a group of students who aim to inform people about Campaign Finance Reform through a Public Awareness Campaign and hope to persuade them to advocate this legislation to their congressional representatives. While there are other websites on the issue of Campaign Finance Reform, none of them make the issue clear and simple to a person who knows nothing about the issue. Our purpose is to define the issue clearly and explain the need for Campaign Finance Reform to people who may know nothing about it. With this year’s presidential election, Campaign Finance Reform is a forefront issue. This election has brought out a new issue in CFR in the form of Super PACS. While many people have heard of super PACS, many people do not truly understand the issue. Our site will explain Super PACS and the impact that they have on elections.
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