WHAT IS A POLITICAL PAC

By TomL

For a long time I have been hearing about Political PACs. So I decided to look it up on the internet. First it is short for “Political Action Committee”. Their purpose is raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates. Most PACs represent business, labor or ideological interests. It’s the ideological interests where the trouble comes in. There is always a radical in the group. They want to get their person in office and will go to extreme measures to make that happen, even break the law.

The Marion County School race has done that again. One of the candidates has made charges of being threatened and bullied in hopes that she would drop out of the race. Some history…several races back, employees of the school system actually stole a candidate’s identity and tried to use it to their advantage. They were caught by the Marion County Sheriff’s office and were not even charged. They were not fired. Back then Sheriff Dean was in office and he was busy trying to damage control a scandal of his own when his person in charge got caught up in a problem.

I for the life of me cannot understand why the candidates or the PAC would attack another opponent and break the law while doing it. Anyway here is what I found on the internet, as follows:

“Political Action Committee (PAC) — A popular term for a political committee organized for the purpose of raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates. Most PACs represent business, labor or ideological interests. PACs can give $5,000 to a candidate committee per election (primary, general or special). They can also give up to $15,000 annually to any national party committee, and $5,000 annually to any other PAC. PACs may receive up to $5,000 from any one individual, PAC or party committee per calendar year. A PAC must register with the FEC within 10 days of its formation, providing name and address for the PAC, its treasurer and any connected organizations. Affiliated PACs are treated as one donor for the purpose of contribution limits.

PACs have been around since 1944, when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) formed the first one to raise money for the re-election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The PAC’s money came from voluntary contributions from union members rather than union treasuries, so it did not violate the Smith Connally Act of 1943, which forbade unions from contributing to federal candidates. Although commonly called PACs, federal election law refers to these accounts as “separate segregated funds” because money contributed to a PAC is kept in a bank account separate from the general corporate or union treasury.

Many politicians also form Leadership PACs as a way of raising money to help fund other candidates’ campaigns. Since June 2008, Leadership PACs reporting electronically must list the candidate sponsoring the PAC, as per the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. Leadership PACs are often indicative of a politician’s aspirations for leadership positions in Congress or for higher office.”

Personally I don’t like the word PAC and don’t think people should organize one for political purposes. I would recommend that if you are the victim of a radical acting person in a political election, file a complaint with law enforcement. Also file a complaint with the Supervisor of Elections, make them earn their pay. Law enforcement very rarely gets involved, but if they do, make sure you praise them and thank them, because it is unusual. If you are a voter and see it going on, report it and vote accordingly.