Super PAC!: money, elections, and voters after Citizens United

The goal of this research is to determine whether the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United ruling changed the contribution strategies of employees of major corporations. Using an original dataset of campaign contributions by employees of Fortune 500 companies, we analyze the contribution strategies of these individuals in the 2008 and 2012 presidential election cycles. Overall, our results suggest three important conclusions. First, Citizens United did not alter Fortune 500 employees’ contribution patterns to traditional political committees. However, the emergence of Super political action committees (PAC) in 2012 may have pulled employees’ contributions from 527 groups, at least in the short term. Second, we find large differences in contributions across resources, and the differences become even more dramatic after Citizens United when CEOs contributed millions to Super PACs. Finally, Fortune 500 employee contributions to traditional political committees still outweigh Super PAC contributions in both numbers and amount. And, importantly, employees of the world’s largest corporations were not the driving force behind the increase in spending after Citizens United.

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Allocating Unlimited Money: What Explains Super PAC Spending in Congressional Elections?

The Forum ◽

10.1515/for-2021-0016 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 229-252

Author(s):

Michael S. Rocca ◽

Jared W. Clay

Keyword(s):

Presidential Election ◽

Congressional Elections ◽

Citizens United ◽

Super Pacs ◽

Independent Expenditures ◽

House Election ◽

Super Pac ◽

Legislative Influence ◽

Election Cycles

Abstract How do Super PACs allocate their resources? The question is both timely and relevant, particularly as we reflect on the ten-year anniversary of the Citizens United ruling. Super PACs now outspend – sometimes by huge margins, as in the 2016 presidential election – all other groups’ independent expenditures including those of parties, unions, and 501(c) organizations. The issue is especially important in congressional politics, where Super PACs have an opportunity to shape the institution every two years through congressional elections. Utilizing outside spending data from the Center for Responsive Politics, we analyze four U.S. House election cycles since the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United ruling (2012–2018). The likelihood that Super PACs invest in a race is strongly determined by the electoral context, even after controlling for the legislative influence of the incumbent member of Congress.

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