National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm’n · ¶110

The same statute also prevents circumvention of the contribution limits by capping political parties’ “coordinated expenditures” with candidates. When a party makes such a coordinated expenditure, it essentially pays the candidate’s bills—stepping up to fund something the candidate would otherwise have to. Without limits on those expenditures, a candidate could ask a donor to make a substantial contribution to the party so as to finance his own campaign expenses. It would then be as though the candidate contribution limits did not exist: The donor could give far more to the party than to the candidate directly, understanding that the money would be passed through to the candidate. And with that evasion of contribution limits, all the old opportunities for quid pro quo deals would come back into play. So Congress, sensibly enough, limited parties’ coordinated expenditures. By thus…

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