PACs were first introduced to the political system circa 1944. That year the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed to raise monies supporting the re-election of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The funds came from the union members contributions rather than the union accounts thus bypassing the Smith Connally Act of 1943. This act clearly forbids unions from directly contributing to the election of a federal candidate.

They are two types of PACs, the connected and non-connected PAC. The non-connected PAC must pay all of their operation costs from personal contributions. These contributions must be from a U.S. citizen or a legal U.S. resident. Connecting PACs ma

y have their operating expenses – staff salaries, lawyers’ fess, fundraising costs – paid by their parent corporation. They can contribute monies to candidates from which they are solicited. And the funds must be contributed by individuals of a sponsoring organization affiliated with the corporation. In essence, the money a connected PAC contributes to a candidate must be donated solely from voluntary, personal donations.

Therefore it is not amazing that there are only two attributes common to federal PAC whether they are connected or non-connected, corporate or professional, labor union or independent. As mentioned previously, all donors in each PAC must be American citizens. Although it is rare, our history does show that foreigners who have become legal United States residents are contributing to PACs and thus participating in the democratic process. The second attribute is there must be full public disclosure of the PACs actions. This includes the name, employer, address and amounts given by each PAC donor who gives more than $200. The PAC must also give a detailed account of how it spends and donates the contributed funds.

We must ask ourselves what does a PAC funding really do, how do they contribute to the political arena? History show us that for many years labor union PACs supported the election of democratic candidates where as business and association PACs supported the conservative or republican candidate. In more recent years, the mo

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