Overview of the Federal Election Commission

At the heart of every election, no matter what the size, is the issue of finance. Each candidate must successfully raise enough funds in order to get his or her message out to all potential voters. As with any political race, there are guidelines and policies that all must follow when raising money for campaigns, which is why it is important to understand how the campaign fundraising policies are set up as well as keep track of changes that are made to the policies themselves. Campaign fundraising affects all candidates and no matter how much money the candidate already has, fundraising the campaign will always be an issue.

When looking at money in politics, most people associate most of the money for campaigns coming from legal sources, which have limits on the amounts given. This money is referred to as "hard money," which has to report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Possible for sources of this money include individuals, political committees, political parties, and corporate or union treasury money with foreign interests. Each state develops their own campaign financing laws with their elections, in which over half of the states allow direct corporate and union donations to the state level campaigns.

As most people realize, the average American usually can afford to make large contributions to political candidates, which is why a very small amount of the funding, around 1% of the voting population makes the maximum contribution to political candidates. The maximum contribution that an individual can make is $1,000 according to the FEC. The Federal Election Commission currently regulates expenditures that are in connection with federal elections or for the purpose of influencing federal elections.

The FEC focuses on fewer than 7,000 active political committees, 5,000 PACs, 1,000 or so candidate committees and a few hundred party committees.The FEC has been proposing a new law that would require television and radio stations to keep records of political advertising buys, however there is no law stating that a database be kept. Overall, the FEC is the organization that regulates all financing and fundraising from candidates who impact federal elections or take part in them.