[EL] campaign spending limits

[Dan Meek]

There are 2 questions about campaign money in the poll.  One of them is 
about what practitioners call "contribution limits," referring to "the 
amount of money individuals can contribute to campaigns for president, 
Senate, and U.S. House."  The second question asks about "limits on the 
amount of money CORPORATIONS, UNIONS and OTHER ORGANIZATIONS can 
contribute to outside organizations trying to influence campaigns for 
president, Senate, and U.S. House."  While imprecise, a fair 
interpretation of that question is that it addresses independent 
expenditures of money originating from CORPORATIONS, UNIONS, and OTHER 
ORGANIZATIONS.  It is apparent that the respondents recognized a 
difference between the questions, as they were 67% in favor of limits on 
campaign contributions by 83% in favor of the limits suggested by the 
second question.

    Do you think there should or should not be limits on the amount of
    money CORPORATIONS,
    UNIONS and OTHER ORGANIZATIONS can contribute to outside
    organizations trying to influence
    campaigns for president, Senate and U.S. House?

    Should be limits  83
    Should not be limits  13
    Don’t know  4
    Refused  *
    Based on:      N=1,006



On 9/16/2012 9:07 AM, Trevor Potter wrote:

Well, the contribution limits on pacs that the public favors overwhelming in this poll would be an important change-- we can stick with that message...

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 16, 2012, at 9:36 AM, "JBoppjr at aol.com" <JBoppjr at aol.com> wrote:

> This is an excellent example of how the press or at least their headline
> writers, gets things wrong:
>
> _“Poll: Strong Support  for Campaign Spending Limits”_
> (http://electionlawblog.org/?p=40267)
> Posted on  _September 15, 2012 6:06 pm_
> (http://electionlawblog.org/?p=40267)  by _Rick Hasen_ (http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3)
>
> _AP_
> (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/09/15/us/politics/ap-us-ap-poll-campaign-spending.html?ref=politics) :  “More than 8 in 10 Americans in a
> poll by The Associated Press and the National  Constitution Center support
> limits on the amount of money given to groups that  are trying to influence
> U.S. elections.”
> The poll is about contribution limits, not campaign spending limits.  No
> wonder the public is so misinformed.  Jim Bopp
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20120916/f838a855/attachment.html>