And while business executives say they want to give to a good cause, their pattern of spending — contributions that often are not disclosed, in apparent violation of ethics rules — suggests another reason.
In 2002, Congress changed the campaign finance laws to ban soft money contributions to party committees, and donors turned instead to so-called 527 groups, which could still spend unlimited contributions.
Gov. Jeb Bush officially began his re-election campaign, filing paperwork with the State Division of Elections that will allow him to raise and spend political contributions.
Mr. Simons is more typical of the emerging large Democratic donors giving to super PACs, which can accept and spend unlimited contributions in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and other court and regulatory rulings.
Because the Democratic convention is five weeks earlier than the Republican one, Mr. Bush can continue to spend private contributions and preserve his public war chest for nearly a month.
Individual-candidate Super PACs support one candidate, are controlled by close associates of that candidate and raise and spend unlimited contributions to support that candidate.
In states that permit unlimited corporate spending, contributions from individuals are about a quarter of the funds raised.
The bills that aren't related to Brexit were such that most in the Commons would find common ground over them: internet protection, maintaining Britain's militarism with huge spending contributions to NATO, legislation to protect the victims of domestic abuse and violence.
The underlying idea is that while the First Amendment prohibits the government from limiting your political speech (and the more you speak, the more you may have to spend), a contribution is money spent to help someone else speak.
