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Campaign Finance

Definition

Campaign finance refers to all funds raised in order to promote candidates, political parties, or policies in elections, referendums, initiatives, party activities, and party organizations.

Analogy

Think of campaign finance like a school bake sale. The more money you raise (through selling cookies), the more you can do - like buying new uniforms for your team or organizing a field trip. But there are rules about how much each person can contribute (donation limits) and where the money can come from (no foreign donations).

Related terms

PACs (Political Action Committees): Organizations that pool campaign contributions from members and donate those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.

Super PACs: A type of independent political action committee which may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, and individuals but is not permitted to contribute directly to parties or candidates.

Citizens United v. FEC: A landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts of money on political activities if it was done independently of a party or candidate.