WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Unspent Campaign Money

0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.800
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh Clark,

0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.479
<v Speaker 1>There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. So

0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.080
<v Speaker 1>this short stuff from Stuff you Should Know Short edition

0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:20.120
<v Speaker 1>about campaign money money. I think we've done some we've

0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.720
<v Speaker 1>dabbled around this topic before, but this is a little

0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.680
<v Speaker 1>shorty question answered. Yeah, it's a based on a how

0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.600
<v Speaker 1>stuff works article we should call out um. But like,

0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:33.839
<v Speaker 1>I've always kind of wondered this but didn't realize i'd

0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.159
<v Speaker 1>wondered it, because I think if I had actually wondered it,

0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.200
<v Speaker 1>I would have just gone and researched it and found out,

0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.159
<v Speaker 1>you know, the answer. But it was like in the

0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.159
<v Speaker 1>back of my head, like one of those questions I

0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.400
<v Speaker 1>didn't know I wanted to know the answer to until

0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.240
<v Speaker 1>I saw the question. You know what I mean? Well, yeah,

0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.239
<v Speaker 1>and I know that I've donated to political campaigns and

0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.840
<v Speaker 1>then never said, hey, wait a minute, you lost did

0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.840
<v Speaker 1>you spend my money? Right? But didn't it didn't cross

0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:00.680
<v Speaker 1>your mind. I know you never said it, but did

0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.080
<v Speaker 1>you ever think, like, did my money get spent? I

0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.200
<v Speaker 1>just assumed that it got spent five seconds after I

0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.960
<v Speaker 1>hit the click button. You know, I think that's frequently

0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.880
<v Speaker 1>the case, but it is possible every once in a

0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:17.080
<v Speaker 1>while that a candidate becomes so popular and raises so

0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:21.959
<v Speaker 1>much money, but then that popularity and that that war

0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.680
<v Speaker 1>chest of campaign money is disproportionate to their actual chance

0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.320
<v Speaker 1>of becoming the nominee for the party. Case in point

0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.680
<v Speaker 1>was Jeb Bush in two thousands, the two thousand and

0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:37.479
<v Speaker 1>sixteen election. Jeb he raced a lot of dough and

0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.400
<v Speaker 1>did not. You know, I'm not sure if like the

0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.120
<v Speaker 1>if there's an equation for money spent and chances of winning,

0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.240
<v Speaker 1>which they're supposedly, is he bucked that trend? He really did.

0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.960
<v Speaker 1>He had UM. I think he raised something like a

0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.560
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty two million dollars, a hundred and fifty

0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.600
<v Speaker 1>two million dollars, which was far and away the most

0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:04.240
<v Speaker 1>of all the Republican UM nominees that primary season UM

0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.680
<v Speaker 1>and did not get it, and that is really unusual.

0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.959
<v Speaker 1>But the reason we're mentioning this is because he had

0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.799
<v Speaker 1>so much money, he um got caught with some left over.

0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.360
<v Speaker 1>And that's fine, like that's not the end of the world.

0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.919
<v Speaker 1>But it does raise that question if you have millions

0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.080
<v Speaker 1>and millions of dollars of campaign contributions and you didn't

0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.200
<v Speaker 1>make it to the general election. What happens to all

0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.799
<v Speaker 1>that money? Yeah, I mean, and it kind of depends.

0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.320
<v Speaker 1>And you know, when you say being caught, that doesn't

0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.160
<v Speaker 1>mean that he did anything wrong aside from I guess

0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.800
<v Speaker 1>doing everything wrong to not win. But it's not like

0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.680
<v Speaker 1>he was caught doing something bad. He was just you know,

0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.320
<v Speaker 1>he lost early enough to where there was a you know,

0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.480
<v Speaker 1>millions and millions and millions of dollars left over, UM,

0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.320
<v Speaker 1>And what happens that money, It kind of depends on

0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:55.440
<v Speaker 1>where it comes from. Right, So there there now that UM,

0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.840
<v Speaker 1>the Supreme Court has completely ruined democracy with the Citizens

0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.400
<v Speaker 1>United case UM. There are two two main groups that

0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:09.200
<v Speaker 1>can be fundeling money towards a particular candidates candidacy. There's

0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.240
<v Speaker 1>the candidate him or herself in their campaign, and then

0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.799
<v Speaker 1>there's also superpacks political action committees. And they used to

0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.040
<v Speaker 1>be political action committees, but now they're on steroids because

0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:23.560
<v Speaker 1>they can raise unlimited funds and spend unlimited funds to

0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.280
<v Speaker 1>help a candidate. So long as the superpack and the

0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.880
<v Speaker 1>candidate aren't coordinating how that money has spent. There just

0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.120
<v Speaker 1>there to support the candidate in ideally on paper, I

0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.680
<v Speaker 1>should say yeah, and earlier when I said, uh, you know,

0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:42.080
<v Speaker 1>if I gave, as in just an independent schmo um

0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.560
<v Speaker 1>money to candidate, it is probably likely that that money

0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:52.040
<v Speaker 1>is burned through pretty quickly. Um. This this these personal contributions.

0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.080
<v Speaker 1>I get the idea that they kind of spend that

0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.480
<v Speaker 1>stuff because you know, and it points out in this

0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.520
<v Speaker 1>article if it's like kind of now never, if you're

0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.400
<v Speaker 1>not you're not like you're holding onto that stuff for

0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:05.440
<v Speaker 1>a rainy day. You're trying to win an election. Uh.

0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.200
<v Speaker 1>And one way to do that is by spending tons

0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.120
<v Speaker 1>of dough So that's called like cash on hand. Right,

0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.480
<v Speaker 1>that's when like you Chuck wrote a check to Jeb

0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.240
<v Speaker 1>Bush and said go Jeb and like the memo, and

0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.440
<v Speaker 1>Jeb's campaign went and cash that money and put it

0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.160
<v Speaker 1>in their account. That's cash on hand. Yeah, they burned

0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.200
<v Speaker 1>through that very very very frequently. But there's also like

0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:30.200
<v Speaker 1>a constant flow of money coming in over time, and

0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.160
<v Speaker 1>their campaign may stop as that money still coming in.

0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.520
<v Speaker 1>So the question remains, like what does Jeb Bush's campaign

0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.360
<v Speaker 1>do with that? And there's actual rules for what they

0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.440
<v Speaker 1>can do and can't do with it. Really the main

0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.840
<v Speaker 1>rule is that after after Jeb Bush drops out of

0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.560
<v Speaker 1>the race or doesn't doesn't get chosen as the party's

0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.719
<v Speaker 1>nominee for the general election, he doesn't get to just

0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:55.920
<v Speaker 1>be like, thanks for the hundred million dollars, chumps, I'm

0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.840
<v Speaker 1>gonna go buy a yacht. That's basically the only rule

0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.640
<v Speaker 1>that the FEC has, well, one of one of a

0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.160
<v Speaker 1>few rules, but that's the big one. Yes, no yachts, right,

0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.520
<v Speaker 1>no yachts cla. Uh yeah, it's basically, you can't spend

0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.000
<v Speaker 1>anything on your personal expenses. Um, And why don't we

0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:14.440
<v Speaker 1>take a break and we're gonna come back and talk

0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:42.800
<v Speaker 1>about some other FEC rules right after this. All right,

0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.920
<v Speaker 1>So you can't spend that stuff on yourself. You can't say, like, geez,

0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:48.880
<v Speaker 1>um brace all this money. I'd love to pay off

0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.280
<v Speaker 1>my mortgage while I'm at it. Um. That's kind of

0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.719
<v Speaker 1>like the main thing. There are things you can do,

0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.720
<v Speaker 1>they're called permissible uses. Uh. You can donate that money

0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.839
<v Speaker 1>to party, which being especially if it's like a nice

0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.680
<v Speaker 1>charity everybody can get behind, like the Save Puppies dot

0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.720
<v Speaker 1>Org or something like that, you know exactly, Um, this

0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.320
<v Speaker 1>is what I don't quite get it. Says, because we

0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.640
<v Speaker 1>pull from two sources. One says, you can just donate

0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.240
<v Speaker 1>it to another candidate, but I think that's limited to

0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:24.359
<v Speaker 1>two thousand dollars if it's just a personal donation. But

0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:28.200
<v Speaker 1>you can can you transfer everything to like a pack,

0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.919
<v Speaker 1>I believe. So. I think the thing that was wrong

0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.119
<v Speaker 1>here is that that the person didn't say the person

0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.400
<v Speaker 1>from Open Secrets or didn't say that they can give

0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.400
<v Speaker 1>it to another candidate up to two grand, they can

0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.040
<v Speaker 1>give the whole thing to the party, or yeah, they

0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.840
<v Speaker 1>can transfer it to to a superpack. So the candidate

0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.520
<v Speaker 1>can apparently take that money and give it to a superpack,

0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.400
<v Speaker 1>but a superpack can't give their money to a candidate.

0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.080
<v Speaker 1>But the impression that I have is that that superpack

0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.160
<v Speaker 1>would have to spend that money on that candidate, either

0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.320
<v Speaker 1>in a future election or if the candidate also is like, well,

0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.000
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna run for Senate instead, they would they

0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:10.280
<v Speaker 1>would be that superpack could fund that candidates um campaigns,

0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.560
<v Speaker 1>no matter what kind of election they were running for. Right.

0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.440
<v Speaker 1>And it's also highly likely that there's an understanding that

0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.640
<v Speaker 1>if a pack or superpack donates a ton of money

0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.240
<v Speaker 1>and that candidate loses and is out, especially if they're

0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.520
<v Speaker 1>out early on, then there's like a hey, you give

0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.480
<v Speaker 1>that back to us now, Yeah, especially with a super pack,

0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.440
<v Speaker 1>because super packs, from the impression I have from researching this,

0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:37.480
<v Speaker 1>are basically like a handful of extraordinarily wealthy billionaires who

0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.160
<v Speaker 1>are saying, yeah, this is our guy, we want to

0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.600
<v Speaker 1>back this person for their their presidential campaign, and then

0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.360
<v Speaker 1>if it doesn't, if it doesn't work, they get their

0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.720
<v Speaker 1>money back eventually. That that was unspent um that happened

0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.800
<v Speaker 1>with Rick Perry. Uh he got he I think he

0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.960
<v Speaker 1>had like thirteen million dollars and unspent funds, which um,

0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.640
<v Speaker 1>that was his superpack and the reason that they knew

0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.760
<v Speaker 1>that he he didn't even make it to the primaries.

0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.800
<v Speaker 1>And the big disparity between Rick Perry's UM campaign and

0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.800
<v Speaker 1>Superpack was that he he couldn't raise more than like

0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.440
<v Speaker 1>a million a million and a half dollars. His campaign couldn't,

0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.720
<v Speaker 1>which is bad news for your campaign. His pack raised

0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:17.640
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of money because there were a couple of

0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.960
<v Speaker 1>billionaires in Dallas who were basically funding the pack. So

0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.560
<v Speaker 1>when when it came down to the wheels hitting the

0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.400
<v Speaker 1>pavement and Rick Perry's campaign couldn't raise that kind of money.

0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.040
<v Speaker 1>He knew it was time to get out, and his

0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.080
<v Speaker 1>superpack contributors got their money back. And then you know

0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.600
<v Speaker 1>how I was talking about people spending uh, Like a

0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:41.120
<v Speaker 1>lot of times a candidate will actually um be in debt,

0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.080
<v Speaker 1>so like not only did they spend um. Scott Walker

0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.600
<v Speaker 1>is a good example of this, Wisconsin governor. He when

0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.320
<v Speaker 1>he dropped out in September two thousand fifteen, UM, he

0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.839
<v Speaker 1>had a million dollars in debts. So he burned through

0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.400
<v Speaker 1>that money. So it's not like there was anyone he

0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.600
<v Speaker 1>could there was no money to return. Yeah, And that's

0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.000
<v Speaker 1>the thing. And so like you can be in debt,

0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.840
<v Speaker 1>your campaign can be in debt, and if you're wealthy,

0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:09.560
<v Speaker 1>that's okay. Um, there's ways for you to to make

0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.120
<v Speaker 1>that money back to retire that debt. You can create

0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.319
<v Speaker 1>fundraisers over time, but that's really difficult to get people

0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:19.240
<v Speaker 1>to contribute to your campaign that's already lost so that

0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.480
<v Speaker 1>you can retire debt. UM. But if you're not wealthy,

0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.280
<v Speaker 1>you might have taken out like personal loans along the

0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.280
<v Speaker 1>way from banks, and that means that you the candidate

0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.480
<v Speaker 1>have personal loan obligations for the rest of your life

0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.240
<v Speaker 1>from this campaign that was unsuccessful. So it can be

0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.000
<v Speaker 1>really nerve racking to run for office and not win

0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.640
<v Speaker 1>or not become the nominee. Because if you are in debt, Uh,

0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.280
<v Speaker 1>you can get caught with that, um and it gets

0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.800
<v Speaker 1>written off. Anything over two hundred fifty dollars that you

0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.880
<v Speaker 1>loan to your campaign gets written off as a donation.

0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:56.920
<v Speaker 1>You're it's gone forever um after twenty days after the election. Yeah.

0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.600
<v Speaker 1>And in the case of like a Donald Trump or

0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.000
<v Speaker 1>I guess rather anyone in the first term of what

0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.240
<v Speaker 1>they hope is going to be a two term fair. Uh.

0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:09.559
<v Speaker 1>If you've just got all this money raised and then

0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.960
<v Speaker 1>you didn't spend it, your campaign is still an entity.

0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.000
<v Speaker 1>It's still an ongoing entity. It's not like they dissolved

0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.960
<v Speaker 1>that while you're in office and then you have to

0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.360
<v Speaker 1>restart at the end of your of your term again.

0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.839
<v Speaker 1>Like he just basically like anyone would keep that money

0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:30.160
<v Speaker 1>in the coffers for the second terms campaign. So that's um,

0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.640
<v Speaker 1>that's what happens to the unspent money. Uh, it just

0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.760
<v Speaker 1>evaporates if you really want to think about it. Uh.

0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.800
<v Speaker 1>And thank you for joining us on short stuff We'll

0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:46.640
<v Speaker 1>see you next time. For more on this and thousands

0:10:46.679 --> 0:11:05.920
<v Speaker 1>of other topics because it how stuff works. Dot com