Self-Funded Campaigns and the Current (Lack of?) Limits on Candidate Contributions to Political Parties
Federal campaign finance law currently prohibits individuals from donating more than $35,500 per year to national political party committees. Yet, in March 2020, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $18 million to the DNC. How was he able to do this? The answer is simple: Mayor Bloomberg donated his $18 million not as an individual, but as a presidential candidate. Under federal campaign finance regulation, candidate committees may transfer their funds “without limitation” to party committees. Normally, this is not an issue, as most candidates raise their campaign funds through outside contributions that are already subject to existing campaign finance limits. But when a candidate self-funds their campaign — as Mayor Bloomberg did — they are seemingly able to evade the limits on individual contributions to political parties. Now dubbed the “Bloomberg loophole” by critics, some argue that such a loophole does not truly exist within the statutory text of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), and have issued a rulemaking petition urging the FEC to amend its regulations to better reflect “the spirit of the law. In response, the FEC stated in June 2020 that it will consider the merits of the petition, which could ultimately result in a rulemaking proceeding to close the loophole. This is, however, far from a guarantee, due to both the current political makeup of FEC commissioners and the ambiguous nature of these laws. Furthermore, with the FEC constantly losing quorum, it remains unknown just how long it could take to get an answer from the Agency. Thus, for the foreseeable future, this anomaly in federal campaign finance law leaves open a dangerous opportunity for self-funded candidates to flex their wealth in exchange for favors from political parties and their candidates. Accordingly, this Piece calls for an unambiguous legislative solution to fill in the gap that allows this loophole to endure, under which self-funded candidates would be permitted to contribute only as much of their personal funds to a political party as currently allowed for a regular individual under existing limits
Year of publication: |
[2021]
|
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Authors: | Martin, John J. |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Subject: | Politische Partei | Political party | Politikfinanzierung | Political finance | Wahlkampf | Electoral campaign |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (20 p) |
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Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Notes: | In: 120 Colum. L. Rev. F. 178 (2020) Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments October 20, 2020 erstellt |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013232951
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