NCPAC famously spent $1.2 million in the 1980 election relentlessly attacking six Democratic lions of the Senate; four of them-McGovern, Birch Bayh of Indiana, Frank Church of Idaho, and John Culver of Iowa-would lose.
Strategist Peter Fenn urged fellow Democrats to "get down in the gutter with NCPAC" if they wanted to win.
corruption emphasized in Buckley and
NCPAC, suggesting a legitimate
A critical analysis of
NCPAC's strategies in key 1980 races: A third party negative campaign.
(52) The Court returned to the
NCPAC case, citing it for the proposition that it would not "second-guess a legislative determination as to the need for prophylactic measures where corruption is the evil feared." (53) While the legislature would presumably have to have some grounds for the imposition of limits, the "quantum" of such evidence "will vary up or down with the novelty and plausibility of the justification raised." (54) The Court insisted that Buckley had not established a minimum requirement of any kind.
Justice William Rehnquist turned aside the argument of the Federal Election Commission that this was not individual speech but "speech by proxy," noting that contributors to
NCPAC "like the message they are hearing ...
A decade later
NCPAC reaffirmed this position, notwithstanding evidence that independent committees had played an important role in the 1980 presidential race, largely in support of Ronald Reagan.
The average
NCPAC contributor donated $75 to the organization.
Peter Pan (M)
NCPAC ($65; 2,097; $716,904) (7/25/05-7/31/05) PW, $1,049,448 in Vienna, Va.
National Conservative Political Action Committee (
NCPAC), (42) the Court rejected a portion of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act that prevented independent spending over $1000 to further the election of a presidential candidate who had opted-in to the public financing system.
Despite this acknowledgment, a clearer passage in Rehnquist's opinion in
NCPAC reverts to the narrow quid pro quo standard.
(Terry) Dolan's National Conservative Political Action Committee (
NCPAC), sponsored a conference in Washington on The Conservative Movement and the Media.