{"id":3970,"date":"2026-06-30T21:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:04:34","slug":"no-the-supreme-court-campaign-finance-ruling-isnt-game-changing-it-even-has-silver-linings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3970","title":{"rendered":"No, the Supreme Court campaign finance ruling isn\u2019t game changing \u2014 it even has silver linings"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>If you listened to a political professional on Tuesday morning you probably heard that the US Supreme Court decision striking down a post-Watergate campaign finance rule is the biggest thing since <i>Citizens United<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3968\">The Supreme Court just gave the GOP a new midterm edge<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There are winners and losers, with some implications for national politics, for sure. But if you instead talked to a person going about their day in Weymouth, they probably have no idea what the ruling was about. And that same political professional would have a dickens of a time trying to convince them it will massively impact their life.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>The 6-3 decision in <i>National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission<\/i> ruled that national political parties can now spend unlimited sums in coordination with candidates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That sounds like a seismic change. In reality, it mostly legalizes what campaigns had already figured out how to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>By 2026, the old rules had become something of a joke anyway because of one creative loophole after another. Both parties have joint fundraising committees that allowed battleground candidates and national parties to raise money together. Donors could essentially give to both at the same time, blurring the very firewall the law was supposed to maintain.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Meanwhile, the real action in campaign finance had already shifted elsewhere. For the last 15 years, ever since <i>Citizens United<\/i>, the dominant force has been super PACs, which can spend and raise unlimited sums as long as they don\u2019t directly coordinate with candidates. It got to the point where entire presidential campaigns were effectively run through super PACs rather than the candidates\u2019 own campaign committees, as happened with John Kasich in 2016 and Ron DeSantis in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In other words, Tuesday\u2019s ruling changes the rules on paper more than it changes how modern campaigns actually operate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Prior to the ruling, campaigns and the national parties technically had to remain in separate buckets because of separate contribution limits, and a firewall had to be in place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There are really two upshots to the ruling, but both are more muted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>First, you will likely see more television advertising since it just got a lot cheaper. Federal law requires FCC-licensed television stations \u2014 think your local affiliates \u2014 to charge the lowest possible advertising rate to actual candidate committees. Those same stations can jack up the price to national political parties, super PACs, and other outside groups.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now that national parties spend without limit in coordination with candidates, they can access those lowest rates, whereas in the past money routed through outside groups would have been charged ten times as much or even more. Getting more bang for the buck likely means advertising will start earlier. Coordination in competitive House races \u2014 which never fully reached the level seen in Senate races \u2014 will also likely surge, though we might not fully experience this until the 2028 election cycle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>All of this comes with a caveat: Fewer people are watching local television, where these cheaper advertisements will be placed, lessening the impact of all this. A Pew Research study of American media habits this spring found that only 20 percent of Americans regularly follow local news, and the share watching local television has continued to decline. Indeed, while local television news was the dominant source of news for decades, it has been overtaken by social media and online outlets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3966\">Harvard professor with polarizing alien theories is picked to lead new White House UFO council<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Nothing changes to advertising rates or placements on cable news or streaming services. Similarly, there will be little impact on online advertising. Though, in theory, there will be less duplication and less guessing about what the national party and the candidate are saying in their ads and when they are placing them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As for the immediate impact on this year\u2019s midterm elections, there is an obvious winner: Republicans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The reason is simple: money. The Republican National Committee entered June with $125 million on hand. The Democratic National Committee was $3.5 million in debt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On the one hand, that is a temporary situation that could change next election, and that cash disparity may not be nearly enough to overcome President Trump\u2019s slumping poll numbers. But on the other hand, it is structurally true that Democratic candidates typically raise more on their own and through recurring small-dollar donations, while Republicans still rely more on big donors. This change in the law helps Republicans more, at least until Democrats adjust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Critics of the decision can easily argue that it is the final nail in the campaign finance coffin. (Though the fact that the Federal Election Commission hasn\u2019t functioned effectively for much of the last decade probably predates this ruling.) That said, there are two silver linings for American politics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>First, there is now more incentive for candidates to put their own names on negative ads. Before this ruling, the typical arrangement was for candidate committees to run mostly positive ads while super PACs and outside groups handled the attacks. Now it is simply much cheaper for candidates to run the negative ads themselves. That creates at least a bit more accountability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Second, this move gives political parties a little more power. Prior to this ruling, national political parties had never been weaker. Politics had become a world dominated by individual candidates \u2014 some more interested in fame than policy \u2014 and by billionaires and special interest groups running super PACs for their own purposes. Indeed, much of 2026 was spent tracking which AI companies were launching which super PACs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now, relying on those super PACs becomes a much more expensive endeavor. By instead giving through national parties, donors are channeling money through organizations run by people who are more accountable, rather than through a system where few people know what \u201cA Better America PAC\u201d actually does, who runs it, what its real agenda is, or whether the claims in its ads are accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Republicans are no doubt happy with this ruling in the short term. But despite all the apocalyptic rhetoric, Tuesday\u2019s decision mostly ratifies the way campaigns were already operating. The biggest winners may be the political parties. And if that means a little less power for billionaire-funded super PACs and a little more accountability for the people whose names are actually on the ballot, that\u2019s not the worst tradeoff \u2014 even if most Americans never notice the difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3964\">Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump\u2019s proposed limits<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans are no doubt happy with this ruling in the short term. But despite all the apocalyptic rhetoric, Tuesday\u2019s decision mostly ratifies the way campaigns were already operating. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>No, the Supreme Court campaign finance ruling isn\u2019t game changing \u2014 it even has silver linings - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3970\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No, the Supreme Court campaign finance ruling isn\u2019t game changing \u2014 it even has silver linings - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Republicans are no doubt happy with this ruling in the short term. 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