ABSTRACT
A presidential hopeful can initiate a bid for the White House by establishing one of three organizational structures: an authorized campaign committee, an exploratory committee, or a precandidacy PAC. According to the provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act, only the first two options are available to candidates; the law specifies that a PAC is not to be used as a candidate campaign organization. Yet because of the less restrictive regulations governing PACs, this type of committee offers the best solution to the strategic problems created by the modern nominating process. Consequently, presidential aspirants, with the assistance of a number of administrative rulings by the Federal Election Commission, have discovered ways to employ these committees as surrogate campaign organizations. The purpose of this chapter is to explain why the current campaign finance regulations encourage this approach.
