Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Spending limits	USstudent244	10/09/03
Hey there …. I have a question regarding political parties and elections. Would you please assist me? Why were spending limits for congressional campaigns created in the 1974 FECA struck down? Also, what are single membership congressional districts? Whats the significance of it? THANK YOU
Answered By		Answered On
stevehaddock		10/13/03
Broadly speaking, the spending limits (but not the contribution limits) were seen to be an infringement on free speech rights by a 8-0 decision of the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976). The court came to the conclusion that no government interest was served in restricting spending except to keep the cost of campaigns down. In retrospect, the law probably had the right idea - if you consider that the spending limits for a congressional race were supposed to be limited to $70,000, and that such races routinely run into the millions of dollars. Not restricting spending also has the effect of not really restricting contributions, even though "individual contributions" were still capped at $1,000. However, there is nothing stopping a person from contributing $1,000 to each candidate in 465 races in an election year (all 435 congressment, about 33-34 Senators and maybe a president) - that's a total of over $900,000. That buys a lot of influence. Single member congressional districts are, I believe, those states that only get one representative, generally the very smallest states like Wyoming. In states with more than one congressional district, you can draw boundaries to either create safe districts or contested districts, but with only one, the district generally becomes safe for one party.

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