$$$ Money In Politics $$$
"Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated." ~ Will Rogers
Money has a huge impact on politics. Every aspect of running a campaign requires cash, and how much money a candidate can spend for his or her campaign is often the deciding factor in a race.
Most of the money spent in a campaign goes toward advertisements, with the rest going towards the cost of running the campaign proper.
In this campaign, Obama has a significant lead money-wise over Romney, having raised over four hundred and thirty two million dollars compared to Romney’s two hundred and eighty million. Needless to say, staggering amounts of money go towards putting these men into office.
One notable fact is that Romney is mainly supported by corporate charity, while the majority of Obama’s money is from grass-roots donations.
Over all of the initial candidates who ran for office in 2012, over seven hundred and twenty million dollars were raised.
Most of the money spent in a campaign goes toward advertisements, with the rest going towards the cost of running the campaign proper.
In this campaign, Obama has a significant lead money-wise over Romney, having raised over four hundred and thirty two million dollars compared to Romney’s two hundred and eighty million. Needless to say, staggering amounts of money go towards putting these men into office.
One notable fact is that Romney is mainly supported by corporate charity, while the majority of Obama’s money is from grass-roots donations.
Over all of the initial candidates who ran for office in 2012, over seven hundred and twenty million dollars were raised.
During the Occupy Wall Street movement, citizens protested corporate influence in politics.
PACs & Super PACs:
Political Action Committees
PACs are organizations that channel money into political campaigns. A normal PAC is an organization that raises money in order to donate to a specific federal campaign, but there is a limit of $5,000 to an individual candidate or $15,000 to a political party. Since 2010, Super PACs have worked around this restriction by prohibiting direct donation to campaigns, instead allowing corporations to do their own unlimited private spending in support of a specific candidate. Super PACs spend money on the same thing that campaigns spend the majority of their money on: advertisements and media. While they cannot assist with administrative expenditures like salaries, travel, accommodations etc. they put a lot of money in where it counts.
Super PACs have spent upwards of $166 million supporting political campaigns in this presidential election alone.
Super PACs have spent upwards of $166 million supporting political campaigns in this presidential election alone.
This graph shows Super PAC spending as of July 2012, even more has been spent since then.