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candidates may continue raising private funds.
Maxing Out to Congressional Candidates:
With contribution limits set at $2,000 per election, an individual can give a maximum of $4,000 to a congressional candidate who makes it past the primary to compete in the general election. More than 12,000 individuals have contributed $4,000 to a congressional candidate in the current cycle so far.
With a few months of the election cycle remaining, that figure is likely to approach the 15,135 individuals who contributed $2,000 to a congressional candidate under the old limit four years ago.
Congressional candidates are less reliant on maximum contributions in the current cycle than they were in 2000. Just over 8 percent of the money to congressional candidates has been raised in $4,000 chunks this year, compared to the 11 percent raised under the old maximum in 2000.
Maxing Out to Parties:
The political parties are raising the maximum from far fewer people in the current cycle than they did in 2000, a sign of their renewed effort to raise small contributions. Under current limits of $25,000 to a party committee per year, an individual may give up to $50,000 to a party committee per cycle. There are 530 people who have done so in the current election cycle so far.
That's a little more than half of the 1,013 people who contributed $40,000 to a party committee in the 2000 cycle. (The old limit was $20,000 per year.)
Giving by Women:
Women are contributing a bigger share of large individual contributions in the current election cycle than at any time since 1989. Female donors have given 28.9 percent of the money collected in amounts greater than $200 by federal candidates, political action committees and parties, the Center found. Women contributed 26.1 percent of that money in the 2000 cycle and 24.4 percent in the 1996 cycle.
The most significant change in female giving has been to the political parties. In the current cycle so far, women have contributed 29.2 percent of the money the parties have raised in amounts over $200. Women contributed 23.3 percent of the large individual contributions to the parties in the 2000 cycle, and 21.3 percent of such contributions in the 1996 cycle.
One reason for the change could be the ban on soft money contributions to the political parties. Women used to give a lower proportion of soft money than they gave of hard money, suggesting that when limits are in place, contributions from wealthy income-earners are often bolstered by donations from their spouses.
The Center's estimates are based on campaign finance figures released this week by the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service. Each election cycle is two years long.
The Center's breakdown of projected spending in the 2004 elections:
Individual contributions to candidates and parties
$2.5 billion
PAC contributions to candidates and parties
$384 million
Candidate self-funding
$144 million
527 spending (related to a federal election)
$386 million
Public funds to presidential candidates and party conventions
$207 million
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