When it comes to spending on elections, records are made to be broken, and that seems to go for every type of spending. The Federal Election Commission says that money flowing through federal political action committees is joining in on the fun. Since the kick-off of the 2006 mid-term period, which the FEC places on 1/1/05, the combined receipts of various PACs through the end of June 2006 is 773.5M, a 23% increase over the same period in the 2004 election cycle. The increase is even more remarkable when factoring in the lack of a presidential campaign this time around. Money spent is up 27% to 656.3M, and direct contributions to candidates is up 21% to 248.2M. With less than two months to go until Election Day, PACs are still sitting on 355.1M. Candidates for the House of Representatives have benefitted from increased donations, with a Democrats enjoying a 23% increase and Republicans banking an extra 26%. Rates of increase are even higher in the Senate (where direct comparisons are more statistically problematical), with Democrats up 30% and Republicans up 55%.
Charting the PACs by type
PAC Financial Activity - - January 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006
|
|
Cash on |
Cash to |
|
No. |
Receipts |
Paymts |
Hand |
cands. |
| Corporate |
1,712 |
$205.50 |
$188.50 |
$95.60 |
$93.70 |
| Labor |
299 |
$153.60 |
$118.60 |
$93.80 |
$38.10 |
| Nonconnected |
1,492 |
$241.10 |
$212.00 |
$70.70 |
$44.20 |
| Trade/Member/Health |
950 |
$158.80 |
$124.40 |
$86.60 |
$66.10 |
| Cooperative |
40 |
$4.30 |
$3.20 |
$3.50 |
$2.40 |
| Corp. Without Stock |
108 |
$10.20 |
$9.50 |
$4.90 |
$3.80 |
| Total |
4,601 |
$773.50 |
$656.30 |
$355.10 |
$248.20 |
* $ in millions
Source: Federal Election Commission
