A Voters Guide – 10 Facts about campaign finance
4. Super PACs
Following Citizens United the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in another case, Speechnow.org v. Federal Election Commission, that in lieu of the Citizens United decision it was unconstitutional to limit the source and size of contributions to independent political associations, such as political action committees, commonly known as PACs.
With corporation free to donate to PACs the Super PAC was born. As long as the PACs weren’t directly related to or coordinated by actual political campaigns, corporations were free to spend as much money as they’d like. A fear was born that corporate money would now be able to buy elections. But it appears the results were different than expected.
In the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary race for example, candidates like Herman Cain and Ron Paul were able to stay in the race much longer because of their respective PACs. Whereas Mitt Romney had all the money he needed regardless of any PAC contributions, Paul and Cain would not have survived as long without it. Because they stayed in the race longer more states were able to meaningfully participate in the primary process. In this way, it is the candidates who aren’t wealthy and who have smaller donor bases who stand to benefit the most from Super PACs.
