Introduction
Elections in United States of America are very expensive affairs and such campaigns are mandatory in course of raise funding. Every presidential candidate has to campaign hard for fund raising and it has been now a custom in America for presidential candidates to raise funds for their elections. This paper intends to discuss presidential campaign finance for the presidential election of the year 2012.
Presidential election of year 2012 made new records in financial campaigns. In final weeks of fundraising, the figure crossed $2 billion mark and this figure made this election most expensive in the history of American presidential elections. United States of America has never witnessed this kind of fundraising ever before. Federal reports confirmed this news and figure that huge amounts was donated to political parties by big donors including big corporate houses of united states of America.
Discussion
Both the presidential candidates Obama as well as Romney campaigned extensively in order to raise funds for their election campaigns and the same was resulted in such huge collections. Romney and Obama both informed federal election commission about their collections related to election campaigns. Romney and Obama both candidates filed the details of their major donors according to state. Mitt Romney, republican candidate who lost the presidential accepted to raise $86 million while winning candidate Obama declared to raise more than $ I billion (The Guardian, 2012).
The total amount was more than $ 2 billion which was expected considering the heat of this election. Both the leading candidates and their parties did all possible things to win presidential elections of 2012. Media ad campaigns, ground battles and public meetings all make these election campaigns too costly for the presidential candidates. Big corporate houses donate profoundly and their donated money constitutes a larger share of total fundraisings. Several other organizers also contribute in these campaigns.
It was revealed that casino owner and billionaire Sheldon Adelson gave more than $100 million to mitt Romney as well as other republican candidates. This LA casino owner and his wife were the most important donor for republicans in American presidential election 2012. Republicans were amazed by the response of donors though Romney lost the election. National finance chairman, Spencer Zwick says, "every dollar we raised was put to use in the effort to elect Mitt Romney" further he says about the collection as "the most successful in Republican Party history (Gabbatt, 2012).
Federal election commission is amazed to see such huge amount of money being used in presidential elections of United States of America. To avoid any legal or any other discourse, political parties of America play very smart and they take help of nonprofit organizations that claim to be working for social welfare but are politically motivated and they fund presidential candidates in order to get their support at later stages. These social organizations are neither duty bound to declare their financial transactions nor they can be forced to declare about their fund donors.
Such huge costs in these elections are involved due to model that political parties adopt in US presidential elections. Big advertising companies are hired for television and media campaigns that cost too much. These advertising and public relation companies work for money and make expensive advertising programs for their subscribers. It has been observed in past American elections that presidential campaigns are literally controlled by these advertising houses.
PAC that works for US president Obama collected more than $15 million in last presidential elections for their client. This group is believed to be controlled by one of former employees of white house ad ahs good corporate connections that are inevitable in order to raise funds. Final collection that was disclosed by this PAC reached more than $78 million during last presidential elections of America. Top donors of this PAC were identified as James H Simons along with Henry Laufer, both are investors of Renaissance technologies. Among several others, Fred Eyechaner, media mogul of Chicago and Texas attorney Steve Mosyton and laborers international union of north America (Citizen, 2012).
Romney got Adelson as the main election donor campaigner. He is a republican by choice and has been assisting republicans since a long time. Not only Romney but other republican candidates also got his support in these elections and it is believed that he spent more than $ 100 billion in the last presidential election of United States of America. American elections involved this much amount of money are a matter of surprise for several other countries of the world.
Presidential elections of America are a bigger event of not only America but whole world keeps their close eyes on American elections. In last presidential elections, Obama defeated mitt Romney and won the elections with a comfortable margin. There are more than a few people who are worried about the huge money involvement in presidential elections of United States of America (USA Super PAC, 2012).
Presidential elections of United States of America and their huge campaigns in order to generate money are famous across the America and people from everywhere participate in these campaigns. It has been observed that these events have become a part of voters and other people who are interested in politics, even slightly. These campaigns are entertaining and leaders attract and try to convince voters but also they try to generate money for their campaigns through such meetings.
America has produced some eminent orators and leaders and last presidential election was very heated and equally leveraged with huge amount of money. American People witnessed a new record in sense of money collection and money spending in American presidential elections. These campaigns are a subject to study for management students.
Election 2012 gained attention of citizens due to various reasons and financing was one of the major reasons. People were amazed to see new, different and innovative strategies to collect finance foe election campaign. People must have never seen such huge money getting raised from different events. According to election commission, 2012 election campaign were casted around $4.2 billion. It is first time in the history that such huge money flown into federal campaign.
During last election in 2008 the fund involved in election campaigns was around $3.8 billion. Political parties were able to raise such huge fund from different independent sources such as industries, and influential individuals. These figures are eye-popping but it seems that this trend is going to continue. Independent groups such as super PACs own tremendous power to raise funds. During elections President Obama supporters spend around $931 million whereas others who were supporting Mitt Romney spent more than one billion USD.
It was identified that big sum of money is flowing from wealthy individuals as per election experts comments. If some data is to be believed, around 150 extremely rich people donated more than $500,000. According to Center for Responsive Politics & Center for Public Integrity contribution made for wealthy class of society is significant. According to these centers if we clubbed all the money together spend on different event, it will be somewhere around $6 billion.
In year 2010 honorable Supreme Court passed a decision that every corporation and union has freedom to political speech thereby it is their wish how much contribution they wants to make to elections. It is not possible to limit the contribution made by individuals towards elections. This decision encouraged people to freely give their money for election’s campaigns. Super PACs has become a medium for wealthy donors to donate their money for the election.
Supreme Court decision made it explicitly legal to donate unlimited amount on any kind of desired media tool or promotional communication activity. People who spent their life in federal election commission said that it is something new that various major forces are actively participating in election process and freely donating their money in activities performed by the party of their choice. People now are not bounded in any rule or law that controls their spending in election campaigns.
In-depth analysis reveled that in 2012 elections $750 million spend on buying 1.1 million television advertisements. Such advertisements started running since April. Majority of these advertisements were running in nine major battleground states. Parties also bought time on radio advertisements and spend huge money in print media. During the elections all possible promotional mediums were explored.
Election commission said that during initial 18 months campaign, the amount spend on campaign was around $4billion. According to reports $1.2 billion was directly given to Presidential candidate. According to Campaign Finance Report developed by Federal Election Commission, during Jan 2011 to June 2012 the money donated to presidential candidates, party committees, PACs, and congressional candidates was $.1 billion. However, there is no proper data is available for 2008 elections hence establishing a link or comparison between funding in both elections is little difficult. Now it is clearly visible that huge money is involved in American presidential elections (Ft.Com Interactive, 2012).
During presidential election 2012 there were various factors that combined contributed towards huge spending during the election. Technology and associated cost to it was also considered during 2012 elections. Candidates made their full efforts to utilize all available technology and mediums in order to win the elections. Unlike when people connected to technology were limited, now more and more people are becoming accessible through different technological mediums. Electoral candidates invested huge money in gaining attention and to attract people. This technology also increased their reach to donors which is reflected in contribution made by individual donors in election 2012.
People are worried about the involvement of huge money in American presidential elections. They opine that this much money is not in the interest of United States of America. Several people have expressed their concerns before the courts of America and courts also have made some provisions about the involvement of huge money but political parties are very shrewd and they find other ways of using\g money in presidential elections. Non profit organizations are a major source of such money and in the last presidential elections they generated and provided huge amount of money to the presidential candidates of United States of America.
Conclusion
After having observed the abovementioned succinct overview of the subject, it can be concluded that presidential elections of United States of America are too costly affair and involves a huge amount of money. Presidential candidates and their parties generate huge money by their financial campaigns and they spend the same on huge advertising campaigns and other mediums of public gatherings. Presidential candidates get huge d amount of money from donors who are from corporate industry. Earlier elections were not so costly and presidential candidates used to attract people on the basis of their policies and agenda but in modern times, the situation has been completely changed and now money that is generated through big financial campaigns are the back bone of presidential election of united states of America. United States of America has not witnessed the costly elections like last presidential elections.
References
Citizen, P. (2012). A Short History of Public Funding of Elections in the U.S. Washington, DC: Public Citizen.
Ft.Com Interactive. (2012, October 26). Retrieved December 4, 2013, from www.ft.com: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c52894e-5415-11e1-8d12-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2mZmuYy9F
Gabbatt, A. (2012, September 26). The Guardian. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from www.theguardian.com: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/26/2012-us-campaigns-cost-4bn
The Guardian. (2012, December 7). Retrieved December 4, 2013, from www.theguardian.com: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/07/us-election-financing-most-expensive
USA Super PAC. (2012). Retrieved December 4, 2013, from www.opensecrets.org: http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/indexpend.php?strID=C00518217&cycle=2012
