What is "political action committee"

PAC \PAC\ (p[a^]k), n. [Acronynm from Political Action Committee.] (Politics) A political action committee, a committee formed by an organization or special-interest group to raise money to support candidates for office or to influence legislation. A PAC provides a legal means for corporations in the U. S. to support political candidates even when direct contributions from corporations to candidates is forbidden by law. In theory, the corporation may not itself contribute to a PAC, but may pay the expenses of raising money from individuals. PACs may also be formed by organizations other than commercial corporations, such as trade associations.

Note: PACs became popular in the 1970's after campaign finance reform laws put limits on the amount of money which an individual can contribute to each candidate for public office. In addition to simply supporting candidates with specific viewpoints, the unstated purpose of PACs is to make politicians aware of their viewpoints, by aggregating sums of money into significant single donations. This latter effect has aroused criticism of PACs from reformers who feel that large donations bias the political process.

n. committee formed by a special-interest group to raise money for their favorite political candidates [syn: PAC]

In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a type of organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The legal term PAC has been created in pursuit of campaign finance reform in the United States. This term is quite specific to all activities of campaign finance in the United States. Democracies of other countries use different terms for the units of campaign spending or spending on political competition (see political finance). At the U.S. federal level, an organization becomes a PAC when it receives or spends more than $2,600 for the purpose of influencing a federal election, according to the Federal Election Campaign Act. At the state level, an organization becomes a PAC according to the state's election laws.

• Contributions from corporate or labor union treasuries are illegal, though they may sponsor a PAC and provide financial support for its administration and fundraising;
• Union-affiliated PACs may only solicit contributions from members;
• Independent PACs may solicit contributions from the general public and must pay their own costs from those funds.

Federal multi-candidate PACs may contribute to candidates as follows:

• $5,000 to a candidate or candidate committee for each election (primary and general elections count as separate elections);
• $15,000 to a political party per year; and
• $5,000 to another PAC per year.
• PACs may make unlimited expenditures independently of a candidate or political party

In its 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned sections of the Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (also known as the McCain-Feingold Act) that had prohibited corporate and union political independent expenditures in political campaigns. Citizens United made it legal for corporations and unions to spend from their general treasuries to finance independent expenditures related to campaigns, but did not alter the prohibition on direct corporate or union contributions to federal campaigns. Organizations seeking to contribute directly to federal candidate campaigns must still rely on traditional PACs for that purpose.