In the United States, a political party committee is an organization, officially affiliated with a political party and registered with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), which raises and spends money for political campaigning. Political party committees are distinct from political action committees, which are formally independent of political parties and subject to different rules.
Though their own internal rules differ, the two major political parties (Democrats and Republicans) have essentially parallel sets of committees; third parties have more varied organizational structures.
National committees
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), Reform Party National Committee, Green National Committee, Libertarian National Committee, and Republican National Committee (RNC) are the official central organizations for their respective parties. They have the greatest role in presidential election years when they are responsible for planning the nominating convention.[1]
The two major parties also have two national Hill committees, controlled by their caucus leadership in each house of Congress, which work specifically to elect members of their own party to Congress.
The DNC and RNC were founded in 1848 and 1854, respectively. For much of their histories, the committees consisted of federated state organizations that came together every four years to organize a convention and support a national ticket, but did very little business outside of presidential years.[2] The two committees did not have permanent staff or headquarters in Washington, DC until the early 1900s; Republicans opened their first headquarters in 1918, and Democrats followed in 1929.[2] Beginning in the late 1970s, national party committees, including congressional committees, massively expanded their financial resources, hired larger staffs, and became more active in campaigns.[2]
Party committees spend heavily in support of their party's nominees. Spending by national party committees includes contributions directly to candidate campaigns, expenditures coordinated with nominated candidate campaigns, independent expenditures, and transfers to state or local party committees. National party expenditures may directly support a federal candidate, but may also fund general party building activities, like a voter registration drive that would help all candidates on a party's ticket in that area.[3]
The individual contribution limit to a single national party committee is indexed to inflation and increases in odd-numbered years. As of 2023, the individual contribution limit was $41,300 per calendar year.[4][5]
State and local committees
Prior to the 1950s, many state and local party committees were a source of patronage jobs, but civil service reforms led to the decline of those systems. During the 1970s and 1980s, state party committees shifted toward professionalized operations mirroring national party committees, concentrating on fundraising and campaign services.[2]
State party organizations typically have both federal and non-federal accounts, and money can be transferred between the two under certain circumstances. (A third and more complicated category of money, Levin funds, has been created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.) As of 2023, the federal limit for individual contributions to a state and related local party committees is $10,000 per year.[6] Though the amount an individual can give to both the national and state party organizations are limited, there are no limits to how much state parties can transfer to their partner national parties. Campaign finance watchdogs have criticized transfers between state and national party committees for creating loopholes to avoid contribution limits.[7]
In many states, legislative campaign committees or assembly campaign committees are operated by political parties in order to raise funds and campaign for the election of party members to the state legislatures. Similar to federal party committees, these organizations recruit candidates and pool resources, staff, and expertise in order to run more effective campaigns.[2] These are federated under such national organizations as the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (formed in 1994) and Republican State Leadership Committee (formed in 2002).[8]
See also
References
