Facts About PACs Podcast

Twelve days out, every PAC director in America is getting the same question from the corner office: Are we going to win? It's the wrong question. With no guest this week, Micaela Isler, David Schild and Adam Belmar unplug to talk about what a win looks like for a business PAC, whoever wins on November 3. It isn't control of Congress. It's relationships with whoever holds the gavel,...

Fifty-two years ago this week, President Gerald Ford signed the law that capped what a PAC can give a candidate: $5,000. That number hasn’t moved since. This week, NABPAC made the case in 535 to change it, in an op-ed Micaela Isler co-signed with two former members of Congress, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado. Micaela, David Schild and Adam Belmar unplug to talk ab...

Fifty years ago, Buckley v. Valeo wrote the rules PACs still live by. This summer, the Supreme Court rewrote some of them. Former FEC Chairman Allen Dickerson , now a partner at BakerHostetler, joins Micaela Isler, David Schild and Adam Belmar to sort out what changed and what didn't. Parties can now coordinate with their candidates without limit. Super PACs have been unlimited since 2010. An...

Forty days out, voting has already begun. Jim Ellis reads the map: early voting, a wild primary season, redistricting won in court, and why we may not know who controls Congress until Thanksgiving. Then the PAC director's checklist, from GOTV to the thank-you note. Episode Sponsor: Capital Bank https://capitalbankmd.com/

Caitlin Donahue started as a PAC coordinator in a chair behind the seat at the table. She ran the PAC at Procter & Gamble and the National Restaurant Association. Today her name is on the door at Seven Star Strategies . In our second Leader of the PAC, she shares the road and her golden rules with the NABPAC community. 

Twenty-five years ago today, 2,975 people went to work, or got on a plane, or ran toward a building. Almost everybody listening remembers where they were. Your newest hire wasn't born yet. Your oldest donor remembers Scotty's Bar in Oklahoma City, 1977, when "PAC" was a word you didn't say in polite company and Washington had just written the new rules. Somewhere between t...

Five Senate primaries this cycle. Five candidates with an enormous money advantage. Five losses. Dr. Casey Burgat of George Washington University joins Micaela Isler and Adam Belmar to work out what campaign money actually buys, and where it stops working. Casey’s Substack piece “ So Much for Buying Elections ” is the starting point, but the conversation turns practical fast: if the late advertisi...

Two primaries, two big polling misses. Eric Wilson of the Center for Campaign Innovation and the Campaign Trend Podcast returns to explain what broke in Wisconsin and Michigan, what margin of error really measures, whether AI "synthetic polls" deserve a line in your research budget, and how PAC directors should allocate resources when the numbers can't be trusted. Plus: the four typ...

How much of your PAC's fundraising year is you — and how much is just the economy you're operating in? Chad Taylor of SAGAC Public Affairs put it to the test: 15 cycles, 300 business PACs, $4 billion in receipts. The surprise? When you de-trend the data, a hotter economy means slower fundraising. Uncertainty drives giving; prosperity doesn't. Adam Belmar and David Schild unpack the...

Congress sits at 9% trust and gets reelected at 90%+ anyway. Americans trust big business at 17%, but the shop down the street gets 67%. What's going on? This week, Michaela, David, and Adam dig into Bruce Mehlman's "trust recession" data with Lauren Colicelli (AVP, Strategic Political Engagement, American Council of Life Insurers; NABPAC Vice Chair) to figure out what it means...

It's our annual rite of summer: a conversation with NABPAC's intern from The Fund for American Studies . This year that's Brandon New, a rising junior studying finance at the University of Florida who came to Washington by way of the Florida House of Representatives — and who very nearly missed the whole thing when his reply to Micaela's interview offer landed in a spam folder....

The wait for NRSC v. FEC is over — and it landed with a bang. On June 30th, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down federal limits on party coordinated expenditures, overruling a 25-year-old precedent and clearing the way for national party committees to spend unlimited amounts coordinating directly with their own federal candidates' campaigns. Hosts Micaela Isler, Adam Belmar, and David S...

America turns 250, and Micaela Isler, David Schild, and Adam Belmar are marking the semiquincentennial with fireworks, C-SPAN recommendations, and a Supreme Court ruling PAC managers can't afford to miss. Bonus James Madison Episode from Adam: Consider The Constitution: Becoming Madison https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/becoming-madison/id1703405569?i=1000774991344

When Brody Mullins published "The Long History of People Stealing Money from Political Action Committees,"  we didn't just read it — we put it to the test. In this episode, Micaela Isler, David Schild, and Adam Belmar dig into the actual case data, separate employee-funded and business trade association PACs from those driving the headlines, and argue that a scary headline is best a...

NABPAC's second Hill Day is in the books — and by all accounts, it delivered. In this debrief episode, Micaela Isler is joined by co-host Adam Belmar and two NABPAC board members who were right in the mix: Trey Hawkins of America's Credit Unions and Joe Manion of the American Waterway Operators. Together, they break down what made this year's Hill visit stand out — from the growing...

Six states. One night. And Jim Ellis has the congressional breakdown. Election analyst Jim Ellis returns to Facts About PACs with his Ellis Insight on the June 2nd primaries across California, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, New Jersey, and New Mexico. From a Sacramento race that could unseat a 20-year incumbent to a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained two-month absence may have cost his party t...

PAC jobs are moving. The market is hot, and NABPAC has the data to prove it. This week, Amie Adams — who runs the NABPAC Help Hotline and is on the front lines of member engagement every day — joins Micaela, David, and Adam to walk through the NABPAC Insights Survey and what it tells us about who today's PAC director really is. We'll look at the profile the data reveals, what the stronge...

What does it really take to walk into a congressional office and move the needle? Stacey Leavandosky — former Chief of Staff to Rep. Zoe Lofgren and a two-decade House veteran — makes her podcast debut on Facts About PACs to break down the art and science of Hill advocacy. Now with NABPAC's Democratic lobbying partner Federal Street Strategies , Stacey shares what she looks for when advocates...

Introducing Leader of the PAC — a brand new recurring series on Facts About PACs where we step away from the issues and programs to hear from the people who have built careers and shaped this community. In our debut episode, Micaela Isler, David Schild, and Adam Belmar sit down with Meaghan Killion Joyce, Director of Political and Advocacy Strategy at International Paper, for a conversation about...

The map is moving — and PAC directors need to be ready. What does the Supreme Court's VRA ruling mean for contribution strategy, incumbent relationships, and budgets built before the lines changed? Plus: with fly-in season arriving and 45 primaries still ahead, a conversation on GOTV and civic engagement — and a preview of Leader of the PAC , a new Facts About PACs series on career paths in t...

It's back — the annual PAC swag update is here, and so is Lori Barber. The Facts About PACs crew reunites with their go-to promotional products expert to find out what's working, what's fading, and what PAC directors should be putting in the bag in 2026. Spoiler: This year it's travel gear, premium brands, and sunglass straps — and if your PAC is hitting a milestone, Lori has t...

Spring has arrived, and so has the Facts About PACs crew — with some new peeps. Sharon Sussin joins Micaela, David, and Adam for a season opener packed with candidate meet-and-greets, member resources, and a timely reality check on what PACs are actually worth. 

The Iran conflict is dominating the news cycle, Congress is heading into Easter recess, and PAC professionals are navigating one of the more unusual moments in recent political memory. In this timely conversation, we explore how to keep your PAC moving when war is the only story anyone is reading.

When the news cycle won't quit, staying focused on your issues is key. A candid conversation for employee-funded and business trade association PAC directors. 

The first real votes of 2026 are in — and the numbers are turning heads. In this week's Facts About PACs , Micaela Isler, David Schild, and Adam Belmar are joined by political analyst Jim Ellis for the Ellis Insight on primary night in Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas. Jim breaks down the headline that's raising alarms for Republicans: for the first time in decades, more Democrats vot...