American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS| 209

These federal funds are generated, in part, by money that taxpayers voluntarily
allocate out of their federal taxes by checking off a box on their tax return form.
The amount an individual taxpayer can choose to allocate is $3. (This donation
does not reduce the refund or increase the taxes.) When this voluntary check-off
procedure has not allocated suffi cient funds to pay for candidates’ public funding,
the rest comes out of general government revenues.
These complex campaign fi nance regulations refl ect two simple truths. First,
any limits on campaign activities involve balancing (1) the right to free speech about
ca ndidates a nd issues with (2) the idea that rich people or well-f unded orga nizations
should not be allowed to dominate what voters hear during the campaign. Second,
an enormous amount of money is spent on American elections (see Table 7.2).

INTERPRETING CAMPAIGN FINANCE DATA

The raw data on campaign fi nance do not always tell the whole story. For example,
the huge amounts make more sense when you consider what is at stake during

CANDIDATE, PARTY, AND INTEREST GROUP ELECTION

FUND-RAISING, 2006–12

TABLETABLE » »^ 5.17. 2

Candidates and political parties raise and spend a great deal of money in their campaigns. Do these numbers help to
explain the high re-election rates for members of Congress?

2006 2008 2010 2012

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES*

Republican (McCain) (Romney)

— $360,000,000 — $989,652,023

Democrat (Obama) (Obama)

— $639,000,000 — $928,497,835

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES

House incumbents $198,137,808 $539,879,135 $481,226,815 $631,553,983

House challengers $27,680,023 $193,381,140 $256,639,703 $198,720,761

House open seat candidates $16,453,309 $150,938,532 $141,773,031 $163,615,546

Senate incumbents $190,492,258 $361,183,002 $186,563,786 $282,484,082

Senate challengers $44,307,619 $100,188,001 $129,210,379 $162,483,481

Senate open seat candidates $18,382,257 $59,328,470 $320,664,118 $265,825,062

POLITICAL PARTIES

Republicans $598,127,532 $1,228,025,068 $497,570,243 $906,957,839

Democrats $493,311,599 $1,210,831,060 $559,585,362 $859,745,655

INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES $59,861,371 $286,459,718 $294,379,276 $977,495,372

TOTALS $1,881,827,402 $5,268,316,289 $2,867,612,713 $6,367,026,932

*Presidential spending includes federal matching funds for the general election.
Source: Data compiled from the Center for Responsive Politics, November 2, 2012, http://www.opensecrets.org (accessed 11/2/12).