Page 119 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

POLITICAL
108
COMMITTEES
ACTION
SOURCE: Jay M. Shafritz, The HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government and
Politics, 1992.
Guido H. Stempel HI
POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES (PACs) are groups of private citizens
who pool their resources, generally money, to support a candidate's campaign.
PACs usually share a common view on an issue. They operate separately from
party and candidate committees and therefore are not bound by the election
laws, including campaign finance laws.
The history of PACs can be traced back to the labor unions during and after
World War II as they sought to prove their ability to influence the political
system. Though the political clout of PACs has grown over past years, many
groups seek to limit the contributions from PACs to curtail the rising costs of
running for political office. At present, though, PACs are not restricted in their
spending the way candidates are, and there is more PAC money than candidate
and party money in presidential and congressional elections.

SOURCE: Jay M. Shafritz, The HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government and
Politics, 1992.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

POLITICAL ACTIVISTS. See Hubert Gerold Brown; Stokely Carmichael;
Frederick Douglass; Jerry Falwell; Pat Robertson; Gloria Marie Steinem.

POLITICAL CARTOONS appear in newspapers and magazines. The cartoons
often take a sarcastic or serious look at current political happenings. They are
humorous, but biting. Political cartoonists are among the best-known political
communicators. The first famous one was Thomas Nast, who drew for Harper's
and the New York Times in the years after the Civil War. More recent standouts
have been Herbert Block (Herblock) of the Washington Post, Hugh Haynie of
the Louisville Courier-Journal, Bill Mauldin of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and
the Chicago Sun Times, Paul Conrad of the Los Angeles Times, and Patrick
Oliphant of the Denver Post.

SOURCES: Michael Emery and Edwin Emery, The Press and America, sixth edition,
1988; Jay M. Shafritz, The HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government and Pol-
itics, 1992.
Guido H. Stempel HI

POLITICAL COLUMNISTS. Newspaper columnists who write almost exclu-
sively about political topics emerged mainly during the 1920s. To be sure, many
an earlier columnist had devoted part of his or her attention to politics. Two of
the earliest of them, Benjamin Perley Poore and Mary Clemmer Ames, wrote
Washington, D.C.-based columns. Poore started in 1854, and Ames started in
1866. However, their focus was not entirely political.