PACs, super PACs, Citizens United, etc: a lexicon

[Recursion]

Because I know we're going to be hearing a lot about them in the near future, a quick guide:

PAC: "Political Action Committee"

A PAC is a type of organization allowed to receive and spend money for political purposes. They are organized under 26 USC 527 and so are often called "527 organizations".

There are four types of PACs, and the type of PAC an organization is determines who can donate to it and to whom it can donate, to wit:

Connected PACs

Connected PACs are established by businesses, non-profits, trade associations, or labor unions. If you live in the DC area, you know how it's full of "The Associated Society of Federated Organizations" and stuff like that. Each of those groups also has an "Associated Society of Federated Organizations PAC". To donate to this kind of PAC, you have to be a member of the organization in question, and you can donate up to $5000 per year to a given connected PAC. A given connected PAC can donate $5000 to a candidate, $15,000 to a party, and $5000 to another PAC.

Non-connected PACs

A non-connected PAC is not tied to a single organization and so can accept donations up to $5000 from any citizen. However, they must focus on an issue defined in their charter (the FEC and IRS are probably more lax on this than they should be). Their donation limits are the same as Connected PACs'.

As a familiar example, the NRA per se does not donate any money to candidates, but its non-connected PAC, the NRA-ILA, can donate up to $5000 to a candidate and $15,000 to a party each year.

Leadership PACs

Basically every elected Federal official has a Leadership PAC. These can accept up to $5000 from any individual, and can donate up to $5000 to any campaign but cannot donate to the elected official's own campaign. They are mostly used to pay for polling, administrative expenses, and other not-directly-campaign-related costs.

Super PACs

After the Speechnow Supreme Court decision (for some reason this often gets confused with Citizens United, but the case in question here was Speechnow), the FEC ruled that a fourth type of PAC was possible, an independent expenditure-only PAC. The first one created was Working Voices by the AFL-CIO.

A "Super PAC" cannot donate to any candidate or party, and cannot make direct electioneering statements ("Vote for X" or "Vote against X" ). But they can make statements on issues ("Gun control is good" or "We should let factories dump benzene in the rivers" ). However, they cannot in any way coordinate with any campaign or party. Anyone can donate any amount to any Super PAC, and they must publish their donor list (as must all other PACs).