[ad_1]
The 2016 presidential campaign was not only one of the most expensive in U.S. history, but also special in terms of spending distribution: although Hillary clinton He spent almost twice as much money as Donald Trump, the Democrat could not leave the field as the winner in the end. That happens very rarely in the United States, even in congressional elections. Generally, the candidate wins with the highest sum available in the election campaign. Hillary Clinton and her support groups spent nearly $ 1.2 billion in total. Donald Trump and his supporters paid nearly $ 650 million to reach potential voters.
Donald trump He was able to win in the end mainly because his campaign team spent more money on advertising on social media. Hillary Clinton relied on classic and more expensive TV commercials towards the end. Additionally, Trump received much more media attention than his rival for his provocative comments during the election campaign. However, his biggest donor was Donald Trump himself. Although, as previously announced, he did not add $ 100 million from his private assets, $ 66 million went to his money pot for the election campaign.
This year’s election campaign could be the most expensive in American history: Donald Trump had raised more than $ 1.3 billion by the end of the summer of 2020. And Joe Biden is also expected to surpass the billion mark soon, according to estimates.
There have long been attempts to curb the influence of party donations on congressional and presidential election campaigns. But the latest landmark Supreme Court ruling overturned most of these reforms. Since then, corporations, banks, unions, interest groups and other “independent” groups, but often driven by political interests, have been able to indirectly invest in campaigning for the candidates.
These include the so-called Super-Pacs. They are political Action platformsThey support individual candidates, but must be formally independent of their campaigns. The main job of the Super-Pacs is to raise money for election advertising. For very wealthy backers, they are the easiest way to invest any amount of money in the election campaign. There are no upper limits. Even without consulting a candidate’s official campaign, advocacy platforms can use their financial resources to decisively shape the applicants’ election campaign by investing heavily in street advertising, TV spots, and brochures.
Super Pacs are in the US. highly controversial. Critics fear that the already enormous influence of donors in politics will be multiplied by support platforms. In addition, they criticize the hollow control mechanisms and the lack of transparency regarding the origin of the funds.
