POLS 101 1st Edition Lecture 22Outline of Current Lecture I. Interest GroupsII. Political Action Committees PACIII. Interest Groups ActivitesCurrent LectureI. Interest Groups- a body or group of people acting in an organized fashion to advance their shared political interest.A. Kinds of Interest Groups- National Rifle Association- promote 2nd amendment rights..-Unions are a kind of interest groups.-Corporations that are active in politics are also interest groups.(NAACP, Common Cause, Veteran of Foreign War-examples of interest groups.)B. Politcal Linkages- Linkages mechanisms is a way to get their views to government attention. Interest groups are a type of political interest. The American system uses interest groups as the most effective means of getting views before government.C. Difference Between Parties and Interest groups- Parties main focus is getting peopleelected. Primary interest of an interest group is influencing policy. D. How do interest groups differ from parties?- Interest groups have narrow and in general smaller memberships than parties. Interest groups have a narrower scope of interest. Major parties are talking about all type of political issues, interest groups tend to focus on one or a few issues. Possible interest group focus issues are environmental, amendment rights, corporations. Narrower focus can be an advantage for interest groups, specialists in their issues. Interest groups DO NOT NOMINAMTE CANDIDATES. Interest groups may recruit candidates to run on party tickets, they may fund candidates financially. II. Political Action Committee- PACA. Federal Election Campaign Act- First legislation in attempt by government to regulate money going into campaigns- This legislation made it legal for organization to come together to raise money for either candidates or parties. This is hard money, because itis regulated. B. 527 Committees, 501c4 Committees – These committees have raised unlimited amounts of money and given them to candidates. It used to be that these committees These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.ran independent campaigns that were usually negative. These committees focus on the sole goal of raising money for elections, but a PAC is usually associated with an interest group. An advantage of a PAC being parented by an interest group, such as corporation, to fund the means needed to run the PAC. An independent PAC, without an interest parent group, must raise money to fund campaign and operating costs of the PAC.C. Many PACs give money to incumbent candidates, who are candidates already in office. It may happen that PACs may give money to both candidates in the race to ensure input. SUPER PACs can give unlimited amounts of money, direct money from corporations to give money to campaigns. D. HARD MONEY- congress regulates money that can be given to candidates per electionsE. Federal Election Committee (FEC) enforces campaign finance reform acts and compilesrecords of who gave how much to candidates. Candidates have to report donors and amounts to FEC in quarterly reports.III. Interest Groups ActivitiesA. When donating money to incumbents likely to be reelected, they expect access. It is not bribery, when donating money the interest groups has a great deal of chance to have influence over actions of legislators donors typically expect to be able to see someone on a face to face bases to discuss legislation. Some interest groups spend a great deal of money lobbying elected officials.B. LOBBYING- Interest groups are best known for lobbying congress, trying to persuade congress members to vote a particular bill, or introduce a particular bill. Interest groups may draft legislation and ask congress member to formally introduce bill to be considered. -Lobbying is done is a number of ways such as personal contact, meeting with elected official or staff member, and most effective tool an interest group can use in this meeting is information. Interest group brings a synopsis of argument, a popular argument is that the constituents will be affected by legislation. When giving information to elected official it is pertinent that the information is supporting your positions, but no misleading or lying. -Testimony at Committee Hearings is another effective method of lobbying. Sub-committee hearings while have interest groups supporting or opposing a particular bill.-Social Events- Inviting a congressman to the interest groups meeting, they cannot directly finance their trip, but finding a loophole around the rules against bribery funding by placing congressman on board of interest group.-Lobbying can happen to the president, lobby the courts, interest groups can lobby federal agencies. Lobbying federal agencies can be rather important after legislation is passed, by providing information. Sometimes interest groups provide thisinformation through a public comment period hearing, plans are unveiled with details. Federal government requires that when writing these plans they prove an ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS), how the action will affect the environment. They draft the statement, make it public, interest group has period of time to comment to agency on what the EIS contains. Public Participation by interest groups is commenting on the EIS. Government has mandated that the comments by interest groups on the EIS must be reviewed and taken into account by the agency. C. Lobbying the Courts- Interest groups may provide lawyers. Example of this is the NAACP lobbied the courts very well to promote their issues by providing lawyers. Lobbying the courts can also involve looking for potential suits, where the interest groups seek individuals to bring case before the supreme court, although this method can have a big pay off. Interest groups can be called during the trial to help a litigates case to provide expert testimony. Interests groups can file AMICUS CURIAL BRIEFS. EX: Brown V. Board of Education- Brief on how society will be affected by justices decision as a whole, not just the individuals involved in the case.D. Interest Groups can be active in elections-ELECTIONEERING- Can recruit candidates, cannot nominate them, but can encourage potential candidates. Can train candidates on how to run an efficient campaign, teach them how to give a good speech, can do public opinion polls for candidates, and can contribute money directly to