Preview

Should Politicians Use Leftover Campaign Finance?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
907 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should Politicians Use Leftover Campaign Finance?
Should there be additional and more severe limits on how retired politicians can use leftover campaign finances?
Yes, I believe there should be severe limits as to how leftover campaign finances are to be used based on the following: (1) to prevent fraudulent acts by deceitful politicians. (2) To build and maintain high ethical standard within the political realm and the politicians. (3) To gain trust of the public.
As a faithful contributor to campaign funds, regardless of the amount, I would want to know that my money is used for the purpose for which I donated it and not for a candidates’ private use.
The threat here is such behaviors, like that of Torricelli, though not illegal, violates the trust of the general public and can affect contributors negatively in the future- they will fear that their
…show more content…
Should those that received political gifts from Torricelli refused his contributions? The fact remains that it takes two to tangle. They should have refused the gift because from all indications from the flow of the stories, there was an offer of a negotiation from Torricelli. Therefore refusing his gift will keep them free from reciprocating the favor offered. But they accepted and negotiations were made and fulfilled.
My thoughts on this, both Torricelli and those that he made contributions to spoke a language that they very well understood. They knew under such surrounding circumstance (that which he gave them the money) they should not receive it but they were as deceitful as he was and they collected it anyways. On the other hand, it is permissible by the federal government for retired officials to give left over funds to candidates.
The strength is in the unity of all Americans coming together for a cause we believe in and contributing $2.9 million for a reelection campaign. This is just for one

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The ‘invisible primary’, also known as the money primary, can be define as the period of time between the first party presidential candidates announcing their intention to run for president and the first primary. The ‘invisible primary’ allows candidates to raise funds for the upcoming primary elections and to garner public support. The fund raising figures and opinion polls are used by the media and campaign teams to predict who the front runners for the nomination are. This is seen as a crucial stage of a campaign for the presidency, as candidates who raise the most money are going to appear the strongest, and as a result will be able to raise even more money from those donors who are seeking to engage in ‘pork barreling’ or sponsoring candidates so their future interests are ensured.…

    • 897 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Setting a regulation to funnel the wealthy elite’s money into super PACs takes away power from the everyday individual and their right to have a government by the people for the people. Also, it perpetuates corruption due to the super PACs not being legally obligated to disclose their spending, which is known as “dark money”. This continues the cycle of corruption by decreasing transparency of a candidate, making the candidate and their interests less known to the public. Due to this, he public is unable to make informed decisions to better not only their own lives, but the entire country through their vote (Levy 1).…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Upton Sinclair wrote this book for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, he tries to awaken the reader to the terrible living conditions of immigrants in the cities around the turn of the century. Chicago has the most potent examples of these conditions. Secondly, he attempts to show the advantages of socialism in helping to remedy the problems of a society such as the one that exists in Chicago at this time.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    With large, unlimited amounts of money being spent through Super PACs, corruption is inevitable. Corruption is able to spread…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As one can see, campaign finance reform has been around for a while, not that many people were really aware of it until the Citizens United v. FEC case of 2010. Citizens United was founded in 1988 by a Washington political consultant, Floyd Brown who received major funding from the Koch brothers, industrialist who own the secondly largest privately owned company in the US (Mayer, 2010). They gained fame by suing the Federal Election Commission (FEC), leading to a notorious Supreme Court case which eliminated some restrictions on how corporations can spend money in elections. Back in 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) was the main United States federal law that regulates political fundraising and spending. Its original focus was…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Congress: The Electoral Connection, David Mayhew looks into the activities that members of the United States Congress engage in, particularly those activities that are related to re-election. In his analysis, Mayhew identifies three basic activities that are pervasive throughout the United States Congress, those being advertising, credit claiming, and position taking. These three activities, altogether, are taken into high consideration by a politician that is seeking to be re-elected. When it comes to examining the behaviors of politicians running for re-election, Mayhew’s analysis is plausible, since his observations can be applied across the political spectrum any period of time.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    corporations and unions provided unprecedented amounts of soft-money contributions during the 1996 and 2000 election cycles. At the same time, the Federal Election Commission had its budget cut, making the commission virtually helpless to prevent the parties from skirting existing campaign finance laws. In light of the impact soft money made on elections, reformers believed soft money must either be eliminated or severely limited. The McCain-Feingold legislation imposed a soft money ban on all federal elections. It also limited the amount of soft money contributors may give to state, district, and local committees. The ban on soft money was one of the highlights in the legislation, but it was expected to come under attack in light of Buckley v. Valeo. Critics of the soft-money ban argue that the contribution of money to political parties is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. In December 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of these limits by a vote of 5–4. The McCain-Feingold legislation actually increased the amount of "hard" money that individuals and other supporters could contribute. The amount of money individuals might contribute to state parties in federal elections increased from $5000 to $10,000. The total amount these individuals might contribute to federal candidates, parties, and other organizations increased from $25,000 to…

    • 2390 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hardball Project

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The third quote is, “Don't give it all at once. Give five thousand at the start and indicate they can come back for more if they need it. Halfway through the campaign, they'll be back. This time give them another five thousand and indicate that is all you intend to contribute. About a week before the election, they'll be so desperate for money that someone will suggest that maybe you can be induced to come to the rescue…” It was said by James Hagerty in response to Reuss wanting to give FDR fifteen thousand dollars up front for his campaign. This is an example of the political maxim what have ya done for me lately? By giving his money out when…

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Boss Tweed

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages

    YES: Professor emeritus of history Alexander B. Callow, Jr., insists that by exercising a corrupting influence over the city arid state government, as well as over key elements within the business community, William M. “Boss” Tweed and his infamous “ring” extracted enormous sums of ill-gotten money for their own benefit in post-Civil War New York…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the Citizens United decision funding came from individuals and PACs, or Political Action Committees. PACs are groups that receive or donate a minimum of $1000 but a maximum of $5000 to any individual to influence federal and/or state elections. This limit made fundraising one of the most time consuming activities for politicians. Even though individuals had the right to donate as much as they wanted the social judgment of openly paying for your political ideals kept many rich silent (and many were simply uninterested). This began to change with Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling which overturned the ban on the use of corporate or union funds in politics.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Campaign finance reform is the issue of our lifetime. While we may point to climate change, gun control, economic inequality, the underlying problem is the influence of money in politics. Our representatives are focused on winning elections, instead of addressing constituent concerns. They have to specifically focus on spending the majority of their working time calling donors, and raising money for their campaigns, that this puts their real job on hold. Time spent calling people and asking for donations is estimated to be around ⅓ to ½ of their work day. Just this fact itself proves that the insane influence of money in politics is detrimental to democracy and disallows politicians to focus on what really matters: the voices…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It is said that the huge significance of money compromises America’s democracy. This is why spending limits have been introduced. In the aftermath of the crooked Watergate scandal, anxiety over campaign finance led to the passage of two major reform bills—the Revenue Act of 1971 and the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974—that…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bernie Madoff

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In our countries history there have been many people that have done a lot of unethical things when it comes to finances. Back in 1920 a man named Charles Ponzi began advertising that he could make a 50% return for investors in only 45 days. Many people believed in this and began to mortgageoff their homes and all of their lives savings. As all of the information became public that he had a criminal history people began to question his judgment. All of them were correct and he was indicted on 86 counts of fraud and tens of millions of dollars were gone.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Campaign Spending Limits

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The 2008 presidential election has shown the citizens of the United States of America how much freedom campaign spending has. Months before the election; spending has exceeded the last 2000 election of six hundred million dollars. It's almost ridiculous how much money can be spent on campaign spending.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Political party funding has been a source of controversy over recent years. Political parties could be funded through membership subscriptions,donations from individuals and companies,and through state funding. Over recent years there has been a lot of contention over the funds political parties receive from private donors such has Lord Ashcroft,the Conservative parties biggest donor and the Lib dem's acceptance of a £2.4 million from the company of a known fraudster,cases such has this has prompted debates for political parties to be funded by the state,Moreover the the funds from members subscriptions has become monetary irrelevant to rely upon. The means of funding used by political parties in the UK has various issues which either is not competent enough to support the parties financially or cannot do so without steering a lot of controversies which has resulted to stronger arguments supporting funding of political parties by the state.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays