But hold on. If you’re a donor, don’t put away your checkbook just yet.
The Democratic and Republican national committees each have separate Senate and House campaign committees to help elect members of Congress. Each has a general fund account to which wealthy donors can also send $33,400 contributions. But the last-minute rider to the 2014 spending bill allowed each of those committees to form two additional accounts: one for recounts and another headquarters business.
And to each, a donor can – you guessed it – also give triple the maximum amount.
Ka-ching.
That’s another $100,200 a year per committee, and times four equals $400,800.
All told, a well-heeled political donor can now contribute more than $800,000 in a year to one of the parties; over the course of the election cycle, more than $1.6 million.
“This is not meaningless,” said Larry Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center,a nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign-finance and voting-rights advocacy group, and a former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission. “These are people who have access to our elected officials, who have their ear. It is a campaign system out of control.”