FEC Announces 1998 Party Spending Limits

News Releases, Media Advisories

WASHINGTON-The Federal Election Commission today announced the 1998 general election spending limits for the national and state political party committees.

Amounts for the Senate campaigns will range from a low of $130,200 in Alaska, to a high of $3,035,874 in California.

These general election expenditures, known as "coordinated expenditures", are limited under the election law. The national committees of each political party have a set amount they may spend on behalf of each U.S. House and Senate candidate. State party committees may spend equal amounts or may transfer their limits to the national committees, effectively doubling the national committees'''' expenditure limits in those states or districts.

Coordinated expenditures are made in addition to direct contributions. They are allowed only with regard to the general election, and do not count as either contributions to candidates or as expenditures made by candidates. Party committees may work with candidates'''' campaigns to determine how the money should be spent, but the campaigns do not receive the funds, the expenditures are reported directly by the party committees on special schedules on their financial disclosure reports.

The election law sets the limit for House races at $10,000, plus costofliving adjustment (COLA). For 1998, that limit is $32,550, except in states with only one congressional district, where the limit will be $65,100.

The limits for Senate races are based on state voting age populations (VAP), with a base limit for states with smaller populations. The formula for determining a state''''s limit is:

$.02 x State VAP + CostofLiving------------------------------

$20,000 + CostofLiving---------------------------------

The following page lists political party expenditure limits for each state.
Coordinated Party Expenditure Limits for ''''98 Senate Nominees

Note to editors/correspondents: The spending limits are, at this time, unofficial until updated VAP and COLA figures, provided by the Labor Department and the Bureau of Census, have been certified. However, the FEC does not expect the computations to change and committees are being so notified.