By law, no more than three commissioners may be of the same political party. An unofficial but important term used by election-watchers to refer to a candidate who has at least half as much campaign money as her or his competitor. The process of identifying contributors by determining their addresses, occupations, employers, economic interests, political and ideological affiliations, and spouses and children who may have contributed. Now, an expression indicating that one needs to look at the sources of elected officials' campaign contributions in order to understand how and in whose interests public policy is made. Used most heavily during election years and thus considered an in-kind public subsidy to incumbents that augments their financial advantage over challengers.
Allotment varies according to the number of mail households in a district.
An arrangement under which all of the campaign funds used by candidates come from the government and none comes from private sources.