Where the money comes from: who finances the US presidential election and how

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Hundreds of millions of dollars. Large corporations, trade unions, businessmen and average Americans. Each contributes to the high-level election of the next US president. Financing system - the most transparent, and all reporting can be found on the website Federal Election Commission. Which, of course, does not exclude the presence of pitfalls and a variety of intricate schemes. ForumDaily scribbled all money sources allowed by law and found out whether immigrants are sharing money with candidates.

Donate a dollar, support the candidate

Obama, Biden and the entire Clinton family write to her. As soon as the primaries began, Anna began receiving several letters a day from Democrats. “Anna, if you are with me, show it. Transfer the dollar, today is the deadline,” Hillary Clinton writes to the girl.

“And we receive about 5 such letters a day. Both from Clinton and from the Democratic Party. From the very beginning, when I first sent $5. The money is simply withdrawn from the card, as when purchasing in any online store,” says the girl.

Anna moved from Kyiv to New York two years ago. Here she received a green card and works as a marketer. She cannot vote yet because she is not a US citizen. However, the girl has a clear civic position - she supports Hillary Clinton. “First of all, I sympathize with this politician. And $5 a month is not much.”

The donations that the election headquarters of Hillary Clinton constantly asks for Anna are called individual. Every American, by law, has the right to give his candidate a certain amount, which is strictly limited - no more $2 700 in one round of elections. This means that the primaries and the main elections are considered as two different election campaigns, respectively, donating this amount is allowed twice.

Donation limits for elections in 2015-2016. Table: fec.gov

Only US citizens can give money for elections, there is an exception only for holders of green cards, as in the case of Anna. You can help with cash only up to $ 100, then you will need to write a check or send money by bank transfer. In addition, it is impossible to make contributions on behalf of another person.

But you can organize fundraising - fundraising events for the candidate. In such actions often takes part Irina Mazur from Philadelphia. The girl has 15 years living in the United States, and this is the third presidential election in which she can vote. She says that at first she didn’t understand how to give money to politicians for their election campaigns, in her native Ukraine no one does that.

“The first time I heard about this, I even asked again: that is, how, just pay the money to the candidate? I had a shock. But then I realized that it is better when this money will be given openly and transparently than in Ukraine: when money is given by someone who does not know it, and part of it settles in who knows where. ”

Irina is a Republican, but will vote for Hillary Clinton in this election. She says her conscience will not allow her to support Donald Trump. At the same time, the girl is sure: there is no point in donating money to presidential candidates - they already have enough donors. Another thing is congressmen or senators. Irina, a lawyer by training, actively monitors the extent to which Ukraine’s interests are taken into account in US international politics. Therefore, the opportunity to communicate directly with congressmen gives her a chance to be heard on a particular issue.

“For example, in order to get some kind of answer on the Ukrainian issue, we do not wait a month or two - we write an appeal and receive an answer within an hour. The same goes for personal meetings. Of course, we cannot influence the final decision of the politician. But conveying your position is already a lot,” says the girl.

Average Americans donate large sums. This may be $ 10 or $ 20, but Senior Constitutional Research Officer at the Cato Institute in Washington Ilya Shapiro is sure that they are very important for candidates. Because it is the balance of large and small donors that makes the candidate successful. “Big donations give the campaign more opportunities, while small ones show a general level of support for the population. For example, Jeb Bush (a candidate for the nomination from the Republican Party who lost to Donald Trump - ForumDaily) there was a lot of money from rich sponsors, but almost nothing from ordinary people. That’s why he was a weak candidate,” explains Ilya Shapiro.

For president - at public expense

The candidate can also receive money directly from the state. In the United States, there is a federal financial fund, money into which comes from taxes. Americans decide whether to fund elections or not when filling out their tax returns, indicating in a special line whether they agree transfer $ 3 to elections.

The total amount is calculated by the formula, but usually it is slightly more than $ 80 million. The candidate, deciding to use the money, can no longer freely collect and spend private funds. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first candidate to abandon state funding. In the 2012 election year, there were already two of them: the same Obama and his opponent Mitt Romney. Participants in the current presidential race, too, do not claim US treasury. Both Clinton and Trump decided that they themselves would collect more than the state could offer them.

By the way, 2016 is the first year when the National Party Congresses were held at their own expense. Two years earlier, Barack Obama signed law (The Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act), which canceled the funding of the conventions. The savings, according to the document, go to the study of childhood diseases.

The party will help, but personal funds are allowed to spend

Directly candidates also receive money from the parties they represent. Funding is usually provided after the National Conventions, where the politician officially gets the right or, in the language of American politics, a nomination to go to the polls from Democrats or Republicans.

Wishing to become president, personal savings can also be spent on his election campaign. For example, in the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump almost completely financed his primary elections (primaries). Moreover, this fact he made one of the key slogans: they say, he does not need rich sponsors, which means that he is independent and uncorrupted. But at the stage of the main elections, his tactics may change, says Ilya Shapiro, and immediately adds: no one can give accurate predictions of the next steps of the billionaire.

"No one fully understands what is happening with Trump. He doesn’t collect much, two months were very few - about a million dollars. Now, it seems, he began to engage in fundraising more. But this is a little ridiculous, because he said that he was rich and he didn’t need money from outside. ”

“Soft money” or how intermediaries collect dollars

All the sources of funding described above are the so-called “hard money” or hard money, which go directly to the candidate. But there are alternative ways to help a beloved politician settle in the White House.

You can give money to intermediaries or political action committees (Political action committee - PAC). Essentially, it is a foundation that raises money for a candidate. Anyone can create it - residents of the same street, representatives of a certain ethnic group, or, for example, several friends.

“When a person has little personal money, he can, for example, gather all his neighbors or his employees and create a fund with the help of which they will all collect more money,” explains Ilya Shapiro.

Committees can also be created in companies, but in this case funds are collected only from employees, the company itself has nothing to sacrifice from its accounts. Such funds are not allowed to spend money on their own, and they can only give a strictly limited amount to a candidate: $2 700 dollars for one stage of the election, if the Committee supports one candidate, and $5 000, if it stands for two or more (there are such). You can create as many committees as you like, but generally speaking, one person can donate no more than $5. “So if you want, for example, to give a candidate $000 million, you can’t just create a bunch of funds and distribute the money among them,” he says. Ilya Shapiro.

And before 2010, it was impossible to circumvent this rule. But the decision of the US Supreme Court in the case Citizens United v. Federal election gave wealthy Americans and corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts of money on an election campaign of candidates.

A million, two or a hundred - what are Super Political Action Committees and who funds them?

The lawsuit by the non-profit organization Citizen United was aimed at proving that corporations are people too, and accordingly, they too can take part in election campaigns. This is how super-committees or Super-PACs came into being. At first, a limit was also set for them. But through the court they managed to remove it too. Now such funds can raise an unlimited amount with one caveat - they must act independently of the candidate.

“Of course, there are super-committees that are led, for example, by former employees of this same candidate, but they have no right to be coordinated in any way. If they find and prove the fact of cooperation, this will result in serious fines,” assures Ilya Shapiro.

Even so, super-committees have a huge impact on election campaigns. According to Responsible Policy Center, by 31 July 2016, all super-committees were able to collect checks for $ 935 939 525. They are led by professionals who understand exactly what can help candidates and how to build their own electoral strategy. Moreover, they can both stand up for the candidate, and direct all their funds against his opponent. Anti-agitation in the US is not prohibited. Both corporations and individuals can finance super committees. The first, according to Ilya Shapiro, are rarely taken on one side.

“Big corporations don't spend money on just one candidate—they don't want half the buyers to dislike them. They have lobbyists who work with both Republicans and Democrats - because big business wants to have influence - no matter who is in power."

And individuals support candidates, rather because of their own political position. For example, businessman George Soros donated to the super committee Clinton $6 million. And he is motivated more ideologically than he hopes that in the future, Clinton will be able to help him globally in financial affairs, said Shapiro. “Most people who spend money on a campaign just like politics, and they want their candidate to win.”

Democrats, in particular Barack Obama, super-committees criticized. But do not abandon them during their election campaigns. For example, the fund Priorities USA Action Hillary Clinton inherited it from the current president and has already raised more than $100 million. Clinton explains that doing away with super PACs now means giving Republicans more financial power. And he promises after becoming president, nominate such supreme judges who will override the decision on super-committees. However, now both she and Donald Trump have several fundswhich independently collect and spend huge sums “for” or “against” these two candidates.

All donations to super PACs are clearly recorded by the Federal Election Commission, so giving money anonymously through them is not possible. But there is a loophole here - 501-c organizations. This is a type of non-profit institution that is allowed to spend a portion of the money raised on politics without disclosing its donors. Therefore, many wealthy sponsors use exactly this method - to support a candidate and not advertise their participation in the political process.

Does money decide everything?

With each presidential race, the path to the White House is becoming more expensive. In 2008, Barack Obama broke all records, collecting over $ 720 million. In late July, Hillary Clinton had already more $370 million. Donald Trump has almost $100 million, but during the primaries, he practically did not collect money from external sources.

Experts say: despite the fact that in the last elections politicians with larger budgets won, it is impossible to say “whoever is richer is the president.” “There is a rule: in order to run the presidential race and be competitive, you need to raise a certain amount. After it, money is no longer so important. What is important is the politician himself and his team. In fact, it's like the chicken and the egg puzzle: did the candidate raise more money because he was more popular? Or is he so popular that they gave him more?” says Ilya Shapiro.

By the way, politicians often do not spend all the money collected. Some of it remains in their election accounts. They cannot spend this amount on a house or a yacht, but they can save it for future campaigns or financially support other politicians.

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