Political action committees (PACs).

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political action committees (PACs).

There’s one other factor that allows for incumbent re-election victories: political action committees (PACs).

PACs are entities that collect corporate and large donor contributions into one spot then decide where that aggregate money goes – meaning… to whom.

Their plan is to get the biggest bang for their buck. And they do that by giving the lion’s share of their dollars to incumbents.

That's because they get a surefire bet, with congressional re-election rates around 90%. And it’s not just corporations but labor groups that heavily give to incumbents, too, at $41 million.

The only group that tends to bet on political newbies is a single-issue one, and even when compared to the money spent to re-elect politicians ($65 million), this still makes up a small fraction ($16 million).

As you can see here, a large proportion of PAC money comes from Wall Street (as represented by the finance, insurance and real estate, or FIRE, line), at $69 million. Next up is the health sector, at $43 million.

Chart

Putting all of this together, I can only draw one conclusion.

Term limits won’t be coming to Washington any time soon. There’s too much money and contributions at stake, especially from big sectors that’ve gotten comfortable with their favorite legislators.

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