# Political Action Committee A **Political Action Committee (PAC)** is a political committee registered with the [[Federal Election Commission]] that raises and spends money to elect or defeat candidates. The PAC is the original and most regulated form of organized political money — the baseline against which every later, looser vehicle (the [[Super PACs]], the [[Hybrid PAC]], the dark-money [[501(c)(4)]]) is best understood as a relaxation. For tax purposes a PAC is a [[527 Organization]]. For campaign-finance purposes it is regulated by the Federal Election Campaign Act and the FEC. ## The Defining Constraint: Contribution Limits What distinguishes a traditional PAC from the post-2010 vehicles is that it is **contribution-limited on both sides**: - It may receive only a capped amount from any individual per year. - It may give only a capped amount directly to a candidate's campaign per election. In exchange for accepting these limits, a traditional PAC may contribute **directly to candidates** and coordinate with them — something a [[Super PACs]] is forbidden from doing. The trade-off structure of the whole campaign-finance system runs along this axis: **direct, coordinated, limited** (the PAC) versus **independent, uncoordinated, unlimited** (the Super PAC). ## The Two Basic Types - **Connected PAC (Separate Segregated Fund / SSF).** Established by a corporation, labor union, or trade association, it may solicit contributions only from a "restricted class" (executives, members, shareholders). The corporation pays the PAC's administrative costs but cannot fund the PAC's contributions from its treasury. Corporate and union PACs are connected PACs. - **Nonconnected PAC.** Not sponsored by any corporation or union; it may solicit the general public. Ideological and single-issue PACs are typically nonconnected. ## Position in the Money Architecture The PAC sits at the **disclosed, limited, coordinated** end of the spectrum this KB tracks. Reading the full taxonomy from most-constrained to least-constrained: 1. **Traditional PAC** — limited contributions, may give directly to candidates, fully disclosed. 2. **[[Leadership PAC]]** — a PAC controlled by a politician to fund *other* candidates and build influence. 3. **[[Super PACs]]** — unlimited contributions, but only independent expenditures (no direct candidate giving, no coordination), fully disclosed. 4. **[[Hybrid PAC]]** — runs both a limited account (for direct giving) and an unlimited account (for independent spending). 5. **[[501(c)(4)]]** — unlimited *and* undisclosed, at the cost of not being able to make politics its primary purpose. The post-[[Citizens United v. FEC]] story is largely the story of money migrating *down* this list — away from the disclosed, limited PAC and toward the unlimited Super PAC and the undisclosed (c)(4). ## Significance for the KB The PAC is the reference point. Every "innovation" in political-money vehicles documented in this KB — Super PACs, Hybrid PACs, crypto and AI super PACs, dark-money (c)(4)s — is defined by *which* PAC constraint it sheds (the contribution limit, the disclosure requirement, or the coordination ban) and what it gives up in return. Knowing the baseline PAC rules is the key to reading the rest of the [[Tax Code Hub]] entity-type cluster. ## See Also - [[Super PACs]] — the unlimited independent-expenditure committee - [[Hybrid PAC]] — the two-account combination vehicle - [[Leadership PAC]] — the politician-controlled influence PAC - [[Joint Fundraising Committee]] — the multi-recipient fundraising vehicle - [[527 Organization]] — the tax category covering all PACs - [[Federal Election Commission]] — the regulator - [[Soft Money]] — the pre-2002 unregulated-money problem PACs were meant to contain - [[Tax Code Hub]] — folder reader map