POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

In the US, a 'political action committee', or 'PAC', is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect or defeat government officials or to promote legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a matter of state and federal law. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, an organization becomes a "political committee" by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election.

★ ''See also List of political action committees.''
Contributions by individuals to federal PACs are limited to $5000. Corporations and unions may not contribute to federal PACs, though they may pay for the administrative costs of a PAC affiliated with the specific corporation or union. Corporate and union affiliated PACs may only solicit contributions from executives, shareholders and their families (in the case of corporations) or members (in the case of unions). "Independent" PACs not affiliated with a corporation or union may solicit contributions from the general public but must pay their operating costs from these regulated contributions.
Federal Multi-candidate PACs are limited in the amount of money 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.
Under federal law, PACs are not limited in their ability to spend money independently of a candidate campaign.

Contents

Categorization of PACs

Political Money Line

2004 Presidential election

See also

External links

Categorization of PACs

Political Money Line

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

★ Agriculture

★ Business - Retail, Services

★ Communication, Technology

★ City/County

★ Defense

★ Energy, Natural Resources

★ Finance, Insurance

★ Foreign Countries

★ Health Care

★ Organized Labor

★ Law

★ Manufacturing

★ Public Employees

★ Real Estate/Construction

★ Transportation

★ ''Miscellaneous''

★ ''Undetermined''

2004 Presidential election

In the 2004 elections, the top 10 PACs by money spent by themselves, their affiliates and subsidiaries were as follows:
# 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

★ Politics of the United States

★ Lobbying in the United States

★ Soft money

★ 527 group

External links

★ PoliticalMoneyLine

★ Campaign Guide for Corporations and Labor Organizations

★ Campaign Guide for Nonconnected Committees

★ Money in Politics Data