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In the United States, 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 in order to promote legislation, often supporting the group's special interests.
- See also List of political action committees.
Federal PACs are limited in the amount of money that 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.
However, PACs are not limited to advertising spent on the support of their own issues.
Categorization of PACs
- OpenSecrets, a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics, categorizes PACs, large and small, as follows:
- Republican/Conservative - organized to elect conservative/Republican candidates; examples are GOPAC and many others
- Democratic/Liberal - see above; examples are many PACs affiliated with Democratic or liberal groups
- Federal Leadership - PACs maintained by members of Congress in order to gain influence with fellow members. Also used by presidential candidates to fund travel before while not officially a candidate.
- Foreign & Defense Policy
- Pro-Israel - ex. AIPAC
- Women's Issues - ex.
- Human Rights - ex.
- Misc Issues - ex.
- Environment - ex.
- Gun Control - ex.
- Gun Rights - ex. National Rifle Association
- Abortion Policy/Pro-Life - ex.
- Abortion Policy/Pro-Choice - ex. EMILY's List
- PoliticalMoneyLine uses the following categories for PACs (The latest totals are available here):
- Agriculture
- Real Estate/Construction
- Communication, Technology
- Defense
- Energy, Natural Resources
- Finance, Insurance
- Business - Retail, Services
- Health Care
- Law
- Organized Labor
- Manufacturing
- Public Employees
- City/County
- Transportation
- Foreign Countries
- Miscellaneous
- Undetermined
2004 Presidential election
In the 2004 elections, the top 10 PACs by money spent by themselves, their affiliates and subsidaries were:
- 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
- Soft money
- GOPAC - a GOP PAC specializing in training political candidates
- GAMPAC - the Godless Americans PAC
- 527 group
External links
- PoliticalMoneyLine
- Campaign Guide for Corporations and Labor Organizations
- Campaign Guide for Nonconnected Committees
- Money in Politics Data
"Political action committee"