National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm’n · ¶123

To begin to see why Congress was right, it’s essential to take a look under the hood of modern fundraising (something the majority never does). Let’s imagine a candidate— call him John Smith—running for President and seeking to raise as much money as he can. Recall that under the current base limits, an individual donor can give Smith’s campaign at most $7,000 for the primary and general elections. See supra, at 4. But Smith can potentially get much more out of that donor by raising money alongside his party—meaning both its national and state committees. To do so, he forms what is known as a “joint fundraising committee”—named, let’s say, the John Smith Victory Fund— consisting of his own campaign committee, the national party committee (the RNC or DNC), and party committees from each of the 50 States (or close to it). Under the base limits applying to parties, a national committee can…

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