- Senate general elections—$150,000 or 12 cents per eligible voter, whichever was greater.
- House primaries—$70,000.
- House general elections—$70,000.
- National party spending—$10,000 per candidate in House general elections; $20,000 or two cents per
eligible voter, whichever was greater, for each candidate in Senate general elections; and two cents per
voter (approximately $2.9-million) in presidential general elections. The expenditure would be above the
candidate’s individual spending limit.
- Applied Senate spending limits to House candidates who represented a whole state.
- Repealed the media spending limitations in the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (PL 92-225).
Made the following exemptions from the above spending limits:
- Expenditures of up to $500 for food and beverages, invitations, unreimbursed travel expenses by volunteers
and spending on "slate cards" and sample ballots.
- Fund-raising costs of up to 20 per cent of the candidate spending limit. Thus the spending limit for
House candidates would be effectively raised from $70,000 to $84,000 and for candidates in presidential
primaries from $10-million to $12-million.
Made the following provisions for public financing:
- Presidential general elections—voluntary public financing. Major party candidates would automatically
qualify for full funding before the campaign. Minor party and independent candidates would be eligible
to receive a proportion of full funding based on past or current votes received. If a candidate opted
for full public funding, no private contributions would be permitted.
- Presidential nominating conventions—optional public funding. Major parties would automatically qualify.
Minor parties would be eligible for lesser amounts based on their proportion of votes received in a past
or current election.
- Presidential primaries—matching public funds of up to $4.5-million per candidate after meeting fundraising
requirement of $100,000 raised in amounts of at least $5,000 in each of 20 states or more. Only first
$250 of individual private contributions would be matched. The candidates of any one party together could
receive no more than 45 per cent of total amount available in federal money. No single candidate could
receive more than 25 per cent of the total available. Only private gifts raised after Jan. 1, 1975 would
qualify for matching for the 1976 election. No federal payments would be made before January 1976.
- All federal money for public funding of campaigns would come from the Presidential Election Campaign
Fund. Money received from the federal income tax dollar check-off would be automatically appropriated
to the fund.
Made the following stipulations for disclosure and reporting dates:
- Required each candidate to establish one central campaign committee through which all contributions
and expenditures on behalf of a candidate must be reported. Required designation of specific bank depositories
of campaign funds.
- Required full reports of contributions and expenditures to be filed with the Federal Election Commission
10 days before and 30 days after every election, and within 10 days of the close of each quarter unless
the committee received or expended less than $1,000 in that quarter. A year-end report was due in nonelection
years.
- Required that contributions of $1,000 or more received within the last 15 days before election be
reported to the commission within 48 hours.
- Prohibited contributions in the name of another.
- Treated loans as contributions. Required a cosigner or guarantor for each $1,000 of outstanding obligation.
- Required any organization which spent any money or committed any act for the purpose of influencing
any election (such as the publication of voting records) to file reports as a political committee. (This
would require reporting by such lobby organizations as Common Cause, Environmental Action, Americans for
Constitutional Action, and Americans for Democratic Action.)
- Required every person who spent or contributed over $100 other than to or through a candidate or political
committee to report.
- Permitted government contractors, unions and corporations to maintain separate, segregated political
funds. (Formerly all contributions by government contractors were prohibited.)
Made the following provisions for enforcement:
- Created an eight-member, full-time bipartisan Federal Elections Commission to be responsible for administering
election laws and the public financing program.
- Provided that the president, speaker of the House and president pro-tem of the Senate would appoint
to the commission two members, each of different parties, all subject to confirmation by Congress. Commission
members could not be officials or employees of any branch of government at time of appointment.
- Made the secretary of the Senate and clerk of the House ex officio, non-voting members of the commission;
provided that their offices would serve as custodian of reports for candidates for House and Senate.
- Provided that commissioners would serve six-year, staggered terms and established a rotating one-year
chairmanship.
- Provided that the commission would: receive campaign reports; make rules and regulations (subject
to review by Congress within 30 days); maintain a cumulative index of reports filed and not filed; make
special and regular reports to Congress and the president; and serve as an election information clearing
house.
- Gave the commission power to render advisory opinions; conduct audits and investigations; subpoena
witnesses and information; and go to court to seek civil injunctions.
- Provided that criminal cases would be referred by the commission to the Justice Department for prosecution.
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