Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®

by Robert E Mutch

In 2015, well over half of the money contributed to the presidential race came from roughly 350 families. The 100 biggest donors gave as much as 2 million small donors combined. Can we still say we live in a democracy if a few hundred rich families provide a disproportionate shares of campaign funds? Congress and the courts are divided on that question, with conservatives saying yes and liberals saying no. The debate is about the most fundamental of political how we define democracy and how we want our democracy to work.

The debate may ultimately be about political theory, but in practice it is conducted in terms of laws, regulations, and court decisions about super PACs, 527s, 501(c)(4)s, dark money, small donors, public funding, corporate contributions, the Federal Election Commission, and the IRS. Campaign What Everyone Needs to Know® explains those laws, regulations, and Supreme Court decisions, from Buckley v. Valeo to Citizens United , asking how they fit into the larger discussion about how we want our democracy to work.

Genres: Politics

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Jameson Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great 101 and easy to read. However, the book struggles to be either the author's clear left- leaning take on the topic or a general opener for a general audience. If he's taking a position he needs to be fair to arguments on both sides.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally published at Book of Bogan

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Campaign Finance is a look at the history of political fundraising in America, both in terms of legislation and practice. It would be easy in a book like this to take a very partisan approach to critiquing the use of Political Action Committees (PACs) and not-for-profits to raise funds for election campaigns. The author manages to maintain a fairly even position, perhaps because both of the major political parties are equal opportunity offenders when it comes to these kind of shenanigans.

I think that it is probably naive to believe that people who do not donate large sums on money to their favourite politicians do not expect something in return. Yes, doing so through a not-for-profit provides some obfuscation, but they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't think they were going to get something out of it as a result.

Something I felt was missing was a reasonable explanation of the reasons which drive the need to raise the kinds of sums involved in running a political campaign. Just looking at the amount of 'electioning' that goes on, particularly in getting a presidential candidate from being a wannabe through to actually getting the party's nomination,it seems to me that the system is set up to require the absurd amounts of finance. If the system were simplified, or reduced somehow, surely it would eliminate much of the cost of running a campaign. But maybe that's just me.

Although a fairly short book, the author manages to touch on most of the major issues which are involved, and covers the major historical developments over the past century or so. It is informative and up to date, addressing issues around the 2012 and 2016 election campaigns. I suppose - for good or ill - it is a non-partisan book, but I believe it fails to address some of the questions that are begging to be answered.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome! So informative and easy to read. I loved the way it was organized, with simply-worded major questions and then their answers making up the bulk of each chapter. It was all the education of reading a textbook without feeling like work. I felt that Mutch remained neutral throughout and offered factual evidence about the history of both major political parties. He manages to be topical and interesting about a subject that could very easily become boring and unreadable. This was exactly what I was looking for and I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of campaign finance and the events and legislation leading up to our current political climate.

*I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review*