IDENTIFY ALL LAWAS SINCE 1925 THAT WERE PASSED TO REGULATE CAMPAIGN
FINANCING.  WHAT DID EACH DO? HOW DID THEY SUCCEED AND HOW DID THEY
FAIL? WHY DOESN'T CONGRESS CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES?

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 11 Oct 2002 17:34 PDT

Federal laws or state laws or both?

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Clarification of Question by npb17-ga on 11 Oct 2002 17:41 PDT

BOTH.
THANKX

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Request for Question Clarification by scottso-ga on 12 Oct 2002 19:03 PDT

npb17,

Researching all 50 state laws for this topic is worthy of much more
than $5.00!  It is a task for which national candidates hire full-time
attorneys.  Would you consider restricting this question to just
national (U.S.) laws?

scottso

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Clarification of Question by npb17-ga on 13 Oct 2002 17:14 PDT

sure! thankx.

Hi,

Limiting this question to federal laws certainly makes things easier! 
Here is the significant federal legislation passed in the past century
on campaign finance:

1910 -- Corrupt Practices Act requires disclosure of contributions in
Congressional races.

1925 -- Corrupt Practices Act amended to cap spending in U.S. Senate
general-election campaigns but it was widely criticized for having
major loopholes.

1939 -- Hatch Act prohibited federal employees from donating to
federal campaigns.

1943 -- Smith-Connally Act sharply restricted campaign activities of
labor unions.  (Unions later found ways around some of the rules.)

1947 -- Taft-Hartley Act further restricted campaign activities of
unions, corporations and interstate banks.

1971 -- Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) expanded rules on
disclosure, limited some champaign spending, and provided limited
funding for campaigns.  This law forms the framework for the law
today.

1974, 1976 -- FECA amended, mostly in response to court decisions that
found parts of it violated the First Amendment guarantee of free
speech.

1979 -- More FECA amendments, mostly to make it more manageable.

Resources used in this summary:

A Brief History of Money in Politics
This page lists dates of major legislation and court decisions
affecting campaign finances.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/history/history6.html

Follow the Money
This page provides another list of major legislation and court
decisions.
http://www.pbs.org/followthemoney/history&humor/timeline.html

Federal Corrupt Practices Act of 1910, Revised 1925, Replaced 1971
This provides details on federal legislation, especially the 1971 law
as amended.
http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/burns3/medialib/docs/corrupt.htm

Campaign Financing: Highlights and Chronology of Current Federal Law
This page includes a list of some of the minor pieces of legislation
(such as appropriations) that had some effect on campaign financing.
http://www.cnie.org/nle/crsreports/risk/rsk-43.cfm

Numerous campaign finance reforms have been considered since 1979, but
anything significant has gotten bogged down in politics. One of the
stronger pieces of legislation seriously considered is the
McCain-Feingold bill. You can find numerous articles on that bill
using this Google search:

search term: federal election campaign reform feingold mccain
://www.google.com/search?q=federal+election+campaign+reform+feingold+mccain&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

You may also be interested in the following page:

Campaign Finance Law 98
This page provides a summary of state laws affecting campaign
spending.
http://www.fec.gov/pages/cflaw98.htm

I hope this fully answers your question.

Sincerely,

mvguy





Google search term: campaign finance laws chronology 1925
://www.google.com/search?q=campaign+finance+laws+chronology+1925&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8