Political Action Committee Article Index for
Political
Website Links For
Political
 

Information About

Political Action Committee





Federal PACs are limited in the amount of money that they can contribute to other organizations:
  • at most $5,000 per candidate per election. Elections such as primaries, general elections and special elections are counted separately.

  • at most $15,000 per political party per year.

  • at most $5,000 per PAC per year.


However, PACs are not limited to advertising spent on the support of their own issues.


CATEGORIZATION OF PACS


# Republican/Conservative - organized to elect conservative/Republican candidates; examples are GOPAC and many others
# Democratic/Liberal - see above; examples are many PACs affiliated with Democratic or liberal groups
# Federal Leadership - PACs maintained by members of Congress in order to gain influence with fellow members. Also used by presidential candidates to fund travel before while not officially a candidate.
# Foreign & Defense Policy
# Pro-Israel - ex.
# Women's Issues - ex.
# Human Rights - ex.
# Misc Issues - ex.
# Environment - ex.
# Gun Control - ex.
# Gun Rights - ex.
# Abortion Policy/Pro-Life - ex.
# Abortion Policy/Pro-Choice - ex.

  • PoliticalMoneyLine uses the following categories for PACs (The latest totals are available here ):

  • # Agriculture

# Real Estate/Construction
# Communication, Technology
# Defense
# Energy, Natural Resources
# Finance, Insurance
# Business - Retail, Services
# Health Care
# Law
# Organized Labor
# Manufacturing
# Public Employees
# City/County
# Transportation
# Foreign Countries
# Miscellaneous
# Undetermined


2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

In the 2004 elections, the top 10 PACs by money spent by themselves, their affiliates and subsidaries were:

# EMILY's List $22,767,521
# Service Employees International Union $12,899,352
# American Federation Of Teachers $12,789,296
# American Medical Association $11,901,542
# National Rifle Association $11,173,358
# Teamsters Union $11,128,729
# International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers $10,819,724
# National Education Association $10,521,538
# American Federation Of State, County And Municipal Employees $9,882,022
# Laborers' International Union Of North America $9,523,837


SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS