Warm Up 11/24

How are political cues related to ratings?

Objectives

• SWBAT– Describe the influence of interest groups.

•Size and Resources• Incentive to participate

•Cohesiveness•Leadership•Techniques

• Publicity and Mass Media Appeals• Mass Mailing• Direct Contact with Government • Federal Register – an official document, published every

weekday, listing the new and proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies. Organized groups have ready access to this to influence Congress.

- Inspirational leadership can be instrumental in building membership

Characteristics and Power of Interest Groups

•Techniques (continued)• Litigation

•Amicus curiae (“friends of the court”) briefs – filed by an individual or organization to present arguments in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case.

• Election Activities• Forming a Political Party• Cooperative Lobbying

•Protest•Candidate Support

Characteristics and Power of Interest Groups

Other Techniques

The Influence of Lobbyists•Who are the Lobbyists?A person or persons employed by and acting for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.•What do Lobbyists Do?Engage in activities aimed at influencing public officials, especially legislators and the policies they enact. Lobbyists primarily provide money for campaigns.

The Iron Triangle

The Influence of Lobbyists

Who Are the Lobbyists?• Lobbyists are former public servants.• Lobbyists are experienced in government.• Lobbyists often go to work for one of the interests

they dealt with while in government.

What Do Lobbyists Do?• Many lobbyists participate in issue networks or

relationships among interest groups, congressional committees, subcommittees, and government agencies that share a common policy concern.

• Interest groups provide money for incumbents.• Interest groups provide information of two important

types.

The Influence of Lobbyists

What Do Lobbyists Do? (cont.)• Interest groups sometimes attempt to influence

legislators and regulators by going directly to the people and urging them to contact public officials.

Interest groups seek to influence politics and public policy by spending money on elections in several ways.

• to candidates for their election campaigns, especially in contested races.

• to political parties.• to other interest groups.• to the members of their group, including employees.

Money and Politics

Money and Politics•The Growth of Political Action Committees PACs

•PACs – the political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members, stockholders, or employees in order to contribute to favored candidates or political parties.

•Types of PACs:•Corporations•Trade and health organizations•Labor unions•Ideological organizations

Political Action Committees (cont.)

• More recently, elected officials have begun to form their own PACs called Leadership PACs.

• Leaderships PACs are formed by an officeholder who collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.

• PACs are important not only because they contribute such a large share of the money congressional candidates raise for their campaigns but also because they contribute so disproportionately to incumbents.

Money and Politics

Professional Associations - PACs That Gave the Most to during the 2007-2008 election cycle (millions of dollars)Professional Associations - PACs That Gave the Most to during the 2007-2008 election cycle (millions of dollars)

TotalPAC amount Democrats Republicans

Operating Engineers Union 2.03 86% 14%International Brotherhood of 1.79 98 2

Electrical WorkerAT&T 1.78 38 62National Association of Realtors 1.76 59 41Machinists-Aerospace Workers 1.48 97 3American Association for Justice 1.48 97 3American Bankers Association 1.45 40 60National Beer Wholesalers 1.41 52 48

AssociationLaborers Union 1.38 93 7International Association of 1.32 75 25

Fire Fighters

Source: Center for Responsive Politics based on data released by the Federal Elections Commission, April 28, 2008

PAC Contributions to Congressional

Candidates1998–2008.

Contributions to Candidates for U.S.

Congress, 1975–2008 (in Millions).

Political Action Committees (cont.)• The law limits the amount of money that PACs, like

individuals, can contribute to any single candidate in an election cycle.

• The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) doubled individual contribution limits and mandated that they increase with inflation while leaving PAC contribution limits unchanged.

Money and Politics

Other Modes of Electioneering• Another way interest groups can influence the outcome of

elections is by persuading their employees, members, or stockholders to vote in a way consistent with the interests of the group.

Other Modes of Electioneering (cont.)• Until the 2004 election cycle, interest groups and individuals

could avoid the contribution limitation to political parties by contributing so-called soft money to political parties.

• Soft money is money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes.

• Issue Ads: Interest groups could also help fund so-called issue ads supporting or opposing candidates as long as the ads did not use certain words.

Independent Expenditures• The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals, groups, and

parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates. When an individual, group, or party does so, they are making an independent expenditure.

Campaigning Through Other Groups• Interest groups found a way to circumvent disclosure and

contribution limits through issue advocacy.• Use of ads that avoided the words “vote for” or “elect”

but which were clearly for one candidate

Money and Politics

In this image from one of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s television advertisements, then-presidential nominee John Kerry’s patriotism and Vietnam War record are called into question.

How Much Do Interest Groups Influence Elections and Legislation?

• Because PACs give more money to incumbents, challengers have difficulty funding their campaigns and have to rely more on individual contributors.

• Mass-membership organizations fail to mobilize their full membership in elections, while they can effectively mobilize when their interests are directly attacked.

• Only a fraction of any candidates funds come from a single group.

• It is debatable how much campaign contributions affect elections.

• There is no guarantee that money produces a payoff in legislation.

The Effectiveness of Interest Group

Activity in Elections• Tendency of PACs to give money to incumbents has

meant that challengers face real difficulties in getting their campaigns funded.

• “Too often, members’ first thought is not what is right or what they believe, but how it will affect fundraising. Who, after all, can seriously contend that a $100,000 donation does not alter the way one thinks about--and quite possibly votes on--an issue?” - Former U. S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY)

How Much Do Interest Groups Influence Elections and Legislation?

Curing the Mischiefs of Faction:• Regulating lobbying• Regulating political money• Serious campaign finance reform began in the 1970s

with the Federal Election Campaign Act (1973)• Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, the

definition of a lobbyist was expanded to include part-time lobbyists, those who deal with congressional staff or executive branch agencies, and those who represent foreign-owned companies and foreign entities.

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