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In United States politics, an Independent Expenditures-Only Committee, also known as a Super PAC, is a type of Political Action Committee that emerged in 2010 and proved highly influential during the 2010 and 2012 federal elections.

Super PACs are groups organized specifically for political advocacy and electioneering. Operating by making independent expenditures during electoral campaigns, Super PACs are legally independent from political candidates or parties. As a result, they do not directly communicate with campaign staff or political parties. Because they are officially independent of political offices, Super PACs are not subject to the same campaign finance limitations as candidates and parties. Although they still disclose their donors to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), those donors are legally allowed to make unlimited contributions to a Super PAC.

Campaign Finance Legislation
Although Super PACs have only existed since 2010, the campaign finance environment that made these groups possible developed over a century, perhaps beginning with the 1907 Tillman Act and the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibited corporations or labor unions from using general treasury funds to influence federal elections. More broad-reaching reforms came in 1971, when Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). FECA and its subsequent amendments introduced a number of new regulations for financing federal campaigns. Perhaps most importantly to the history of Super PACs, it created the Federal Election Commission (FEC), introduced contribution limits to campaigns, and required the disclosure of the names of all donors who give more than $200 per election cycle as well as the amount given. Most of the FECA provisions were upheld in the Buckley v. Valeo Supreme Court case of 1976.

The next major campaign finance reform was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), frequently referred to as the McCain-Feingold Act. BCRA sought to reduce outside influences in political campaigns

Although FECA restrictions continued to limit contributions made directly to campaigns, wealthy donors were still able to influence the political process through soft money contributions. Soft money is money given to political parties that is not marked for a specific candidate, so it avoids campaign contribution limits; megadonors funneled their money into political parties, which were then able to use soft money donations for the campaigns.

BCRA. Spies quote

Origins of name
from PACs page

Super PAC Operations
quotes from Burton, etc., about how they operate. independence. so on.