Review: More than Half of FEC-Registered Tea Party PACs Are Inactive, and None are Vital

As I mentioned earlier today, there are two routes by which the activity of political organizations in this country can reach federal disclosure. One is through the Internal Revenue Service, which maintains a database of federally-registered non-profit Section 527 political organizations engaged in policy-focused activism. The other route goes through the Federal Election Commission, which collects and discloses contributions to Political Action Committees (PACs) and the diversion of cash by PACs to political parties, other PACs, candidates for office, and operational expenses. PACs’ very reason for being is to funnel money into the political process; a PAC cannot carry out its function without receiving contributions. A PAC cannot even launch a significant all-volunteer action without filing FEC contribution reports, since in-kind contributions must also be reported. For these reasons, a PAC’s report of contributions to the FEC is a reasonable indication of its level of activity.

A quick search through the FEC’s PAC Summary reports reveals the following pattern of contributions in the years 2009 and 2010 for 15 different Political Action Committees using the term “Tea Party” in their titles.

Fewer than half of these FEC-Registered Tea Party PACs have received any contributions whatsoever in the past two years of this highly contested election cycle. Only one of the Tea Party PACs — the Ohio Tea Party PAC — has garnered more than $10,000 in contributions (and that just barely). More detailed peeks into FEC records show that some of these PACs even find themselves in debt.

One of the big stories this year in the papers and on TV news shows has been the increasing influence of Tea Party groups on national politics. If the Tea Party movement really is a big influence on national politics, then that influence is being exercised in some way other than by Tea Party PACs.