The mother’s milk of politics is money.  It is the primary means of influencing public officials.  Usually it begins with a noticeable campaign donation.  A plutocracy we are not.  We are not governed by and for the rich.  Although when you look at the gross sums of money required to win national elections one begins to wonder.

There have been many attempts to limit and regulate the role money plays in our political system.  Substantiating substantive corruption is rare, but our perception, as citizens, is that money significantly tarnishes the integrity of our political process.  Congress has routinely proposed finance limits and regulations.  Presidents have willingly enforced these restrictions and the Supreme Court typically has found little constitutional burden.  Nevertheless, our perception of monies’ corrupting influence goes unabated.  We look upon interest groups, lobbyists and “the special interests” with great disdain.  We often forget that these despicable folks are regular citizens just like us, organized under the protection of the First Amendment’s right to petition our government.  Perhaps our hopes of a government which is lactose intolerant is misguided.  Maybe mother’s do know best.

Here is a glossary of Campaign Finance Essentials

Bundling In this practice, small donations are combined and delivered to campaigns by an individual or group. It's a way for an interest group to stay within legal limits on individual contributions, yet demonstrate its money-raising prowess. The McCain-Feingold legislation would ban most instances of bundling.

FEC The Federal Election Commission. Founded in 1974, it is the federal agency that oversees federal campaigns. It's considered something of a toothless watchdog, however. It has proven to be very slow to act and not very effective in combating campaign abuses.

Full Disclosure Many Republicans believe that in the debate over in money and politics, what really matters is knowing where candidates' money is coming from. "Full disclosure" simply refers to a process whereby candidates would be required to disclose publicly the source of all their campaign contributions.

Independent Expenditures Some groups spend money on activities that support presidential candidates, but have no direct link to the candidate's campaign, and thereby are able to get around spending limits. An example of this was the infamous "Willie Horton" ad that attacked Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis' prison furlough policy in Massachusetts. Though the ad was clearly designed to buttress President Bush's re-election effort, the group that made the ad was independent of the Bush campaign.

McCain-Feingold Refers to a bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) that would ban soft money, ban PAC contributions and provide incentives (free broadcasting, lower media costs, lower postal costs) to candidates to abide by spending limits.

PACs Political action committees are essentially groups of individuals united by similar interests. They range from business groups to labor groups to single-issue groups. By law, they can only donate $5,000 per candidate per election.

Public Financing To lessen the need for constant fund-raising and level the playing field for challengers, many reformers favor having the federal government pay all or part of the cost of campaigns. Democrats generally favor the idea; Republicans generally oppose it.

Soft Money These are funds raised by the political parties that are used, ostensibly, only for party building efforts and not for direct support of federal candidates. In practice, most believe the money ends up helping candidates just as much as the party organizations. It has been banned by the most recent campaign finance law, McCain - Feingold.

Terms and definitions taken in part from Copyright © 1997 AllPolitics All Rights Reserved.


Despite attempts to assuage the corrupting influence of money there appears to be no remedy.  As political consultant Ralph Reed has said, "Money is like water down the side of the mountain. It will find a way to get around the trees."

In the latest campaign cycle, $4 billion was spent.  During that same period, over $7 billion was spent on purchasing flowers.