VOTE BUYING. In the old days, political parties, candidates, and interest groups would lavish voters with alcohol and hard cash in exchange for their votes. That went on from the earliest days of the US until the first half of the 20th century when bit by bit election codes were rewritten to prevent many common corrupt practices. Buying votes directly from voters became illegal, subject to criminal prosecution. But in my view, the criminality just forced the platform to change.
There’s still big money that goes into “buying” our elections: we are ceaselessly bombarded with carefully crafted images and sound bites, ads, and negative ads. This approach might not be illegal, but the goal is the same.
While an elected official represents a specific geography, sources of money are not restricted to that geography. Money can come from anywhere, and indeed it does, lots of it. Traditional political action committees (PACs) have both spending and donation limits. They can spend up to $5,000 on a candidate every election, up to $5,000 annually in contributions to other PACs, and up to $15,000 on national party committees. Super PACs, however, came about after the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC court decision.
https://usafacts.org/articles/what-role-do-political-action-committees-have-in-elections/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9_9_24_Economy%20and%20climate%20all&_kx=81-EtlTtDKCC-cjWa2FEiq84ThSh-dlkc4Ih36mi2JA.SH8aQb