Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Unspent Campaign Money

Transcript

Short Stuff: Unspent Campaign Money · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh Clark,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. So
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this short stuff from Stuff you Should Know Short edition
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: about campaign money money. I think we've done some we've
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: dabbled around this topic before, but this is a little
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: shorty question answered. Yeah, it's a based on a how
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: stuff works article we should call out um. But like,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I've always kind of wondered this but didn't realize i'd
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: wondered it, because I think if I had actually wondered it,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I would have just gone and researched it and found out,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you know, the answer. But it was like in the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: back of my head, like one of those questions I
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: didn't know I wanted to know the answer to until
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I saw the question. You know what I mean? Well, yeah,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and I know that I've donated to political campaigns and
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: then never said, hey, wait a minute, you lost did
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you spend my money? Right? But didn't it didn't cross
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: your mind. I know you never said it, but did
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you ever think, like, did my money get spent? I
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: just assumed that it got spent five seconds after I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: hit the click button. You know, I think that's frequently
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the case, but it is possible every once in a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: while that a candidate becomes so popular and raises so
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: much money, but then that popularity and that that war
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: chest of campaign money is disproportionate to their actual chance
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: of becoming the nominee for the party. Case in point
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: was Jeb Bush in two thousands, the two thousand and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: sixteen election. Jeb he raced a lot of dough and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: did not. You know, I'm not sure if like the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: if there's an equation for money spent and chances of winning,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: which they're supposedly, is he bucked that trend? He really did.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: He had UM. I think he raised something like a
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two million dollars, a hundred and fifty
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: two million dollars, which was far and away the most
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of all the Republican UM nominees that primary season UM
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and did not get it, and that is really unusual.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: But the reason we're mentioning this is because he had
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: so much money, he um got caught with some left over.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: And that's fine, like that's not the end of the world.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: But it does raise that question if you have millions
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and millions of dollars of campaign contributions and you didn't
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: make it to the general election. What happens to all
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that money? Yeah, I mean, and it kind of depends.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: And you know, when you say being caught, that doesn't
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: mean that he did anything wrong aside from I guess
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: doing everything wrong to not win. But it's not like
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: he was caught doing something bad. He was just you know,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: he lost early enough to where there was a you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: millions and millions and millions of dollars left over, UM,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And what happens that money, It kind of depends on
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: where it comes from. Right, So there there now that UM,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court has completely ruined democracy with the Citizens
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: United case UM. There are two two main groups that
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: can be fundeling money towards a particular candidates candidacy. There's
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the candidate him or herself in their campaign, and then
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: there's also superpacks political action committees. And they used to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: be political action committees, but now they're on steroids because
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: they can raise unlimited funds and spend unlimited funds to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: help a candidate. So long as the superpack and the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: candidate aren't coordinating how that money has spent. There just
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: there to support the candidate in ideally on paper, I
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: should say yeah, and earlier when I said, uh, you know,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: if I gave, as in just an independent schmo um
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: money to candidate, it is probably likely that that money
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: is burned through pretty quickly. Um. This this these personal contributions.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: I get the idea that they kind of spend that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: stuff because you know, and it points out in this
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: article if it's like kind of now never, if you're
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: not you're not like you're holding onto that stuff for
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a rainy day. You're trying to win an election. Uh.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: And one way to do that is by spending tons
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of dough So that's called like cash on hand. Right,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: that's when like you Chuck wrote a check to Jeb
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Bush and said go Jeb and like the memo, and
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Jeb's campaign went and cash that money and put it
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in their account. That's cash on hand. Yeah, they burned
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: through that very very very frequently. But there's also like
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a constant flow of money coming in over time, and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: their campaign may stop as that money still coming in.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So the question remains, like what does Jeb Bush's campaign
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: do with that? And there's actual rules for what they
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: can do and can't do with it. Really the main
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: rule is that after after Jeb Bush drops out of
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the race or doesn't doesn't get chosen as the party's
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: nominee for the general election, he doesn't get to just
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: be like, thanks for the hundred million dollars, chumps, I'm
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: gonna go buy a yacht. That's basically the only rule
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: that the FEC has, well, one of one of a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: few rules, but that's the big one. Yes, no yachts, right,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: no yachts cla. Uh yeah, it's basically, you can't spend
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: anything on your personal expenses. Um, And why don't we
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: take a break and we're gonna come back and talk
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: about some other FEC rules right after this. All right,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: So you can't spend that stuff on yourself. You can't say, like, geez,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: um brace all this money. I'd love to pay off
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: my mortgage while I'm at it. Um. That's kind of
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: like the main thing. There are things you can do,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: they're called permissible uses. Uh. You can donate that money
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to party, which being especially if it's like a nice
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: charity everybody can get behind, like the Save Puppies dot
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Org or something like that, you know exactly, Um, this
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: is what I don't quite get it. Says, because we
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: pull from two sources. One says, you can just donate
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: it to another candidate, but I think that's limited to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: two thousand dollars if it's just a personal donation. But
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you can can you transfer everything to like a pack,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I believe. So. I think the thing that was wrong
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: here is that that the person didn't say the person
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: from Open Secrets or didn't say that they can give
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it to another candidate up to two grand, they can
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: give the whole thing to the party, or yeah, they
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: can transfer it to to a superpack. So the candidate
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: can apparently take that money and give it to a superpack,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: but a superpack can't give their money to a candidate.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: But the impression that I have is that that superpack
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: would have to spend that money on that candidate, either
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: in a future election or if the candidate also is like, well,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna run for Senate instead, they would they
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: would be that superpack could fund that candidates um campaigns,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: no matter what kind of election they were running for. Right.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And it's also highly likely that there's an understanding that
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: if a pack or superpack donates a ton of money
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and that candidate loses and is out, especially if they're
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: out early on, then there's like a hey, you give
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: that back to us now, Yeah, especially with a super pack,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: because super packs, from the impression I have from researching this,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: are basically like a handful of extraordinarily wealthy billionaires who
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: are saying, yeah, this is our guy, we want to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: back this person for their their presidential campaign, and then
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: if it doesn't, if it doesn't work, they get their
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: money back eventually. That that was unspent um that happened
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: with Rick Perry. Uh he got he I think he
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: had like thirteen million dollars and unspent funds, which um,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that was his superpack and the reason that they knew
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: that he he didn't even make it to the primaries.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And the big disparity between Rick Perry's UM campaign and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Superpack was that he he couldn't raise more than like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a million a million and a half dollars. His campaign couldn't,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: which is bad news for your campaign. His pack raised
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a bunch of money because there were a couple of
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: billionaires in Dallas who were basically funding the pack. So
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: when when it came down to the wheels hitting the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: pavement and Rick Perry's campaign couldn't raise that kind of money.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: He knew it was time to get out, and his
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: superpack contributors got their money back. And then you know
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: how I was talking about people spending uh, Like a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: lot of times a candidate will actually um be in debt,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: so like not only did they spend um. Scott Walker
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: is a good example of this, Wisconsin governor. He when
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: he dropped out in September two thousand fifteen, UM, he
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: had a million dollars in debts. So he burned through
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: that money. So it's not like there was anyone he
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: could there was no money to return. Yeah, And that's
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the thing. And so like you can be in debt,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: your campaign can be in debt, and if you're wealthy,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: that's okay. Um, there's ways for you to to make
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: that money back to retire that debt. You can create
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: fundraisers over time, but that's really difficult to get people
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to contribute to your campaign that's already lost so that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: you can retire debt. UM. But if you're not wealthy,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you might have taken out like personal loans along the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: way from banks, and that means that you the candidate
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: have personal loan obligations for the rest of your life
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: from this campaign that was unsuccessful. So it can be
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: really nerve racking to run for office and not win
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: or not become the nominee. Because if you are in debt, Uh,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: you can get caught with that, um and it gets
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: written off. Anything over two hundred fifty dollars that you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: loan to your campaign gets written off as a donation.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: You're it's gone forever um after twenty days after the election. Yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And in the case of like a Donald Trump or
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I guess rather anyone in the first term of what
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: they hope is going to be a two term fair. Uh.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: If you've just got all this money raised and then
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you didn't spend it, your campaign is still an entity.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's still an ongoing entity. It's not like they dissolved
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: that while you're in office and then you have to
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: restart at the end of your of your term again.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Like he just basically like anyone would keep that money
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: in the coffers for the second terms campaign. So that's um,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that's what happens to the unspent money. Uh, it just
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: evaporates if you really want to think about it. Uh.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: And thank you for joining us on short stuff We'll
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: see you next time. For more on this and thousands
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: of other topics because it how stuff works. Dot com