458
REPUBLICAN FEDERAL CAMPAIGN COMM. Opinion of the Court
Under the Act, a donor is limited to $2,000 in contributions to one candidate in a given election cycle. The same donor may give as much as another $20,000 each year to a national party committee supporting the candidate.20 What a realist would expect to occur has occurred. Donors give to the party with the tacit understanding that the favored candidate will benefit. See App. 247 (declaration of Robert Hick-mott, former Democratic fundraiser and National Finance Director for Timothy Wirth's Senate campaign) ("We . . . told contributors who had made the maximum allowable contribution to the Wirth campaign but who wanted to do more that they could raise money for the DSCC so that we could get our maximum [Party Expenditure Provision] allocation from the DSCC"); id., at 274 (declaration of Timothy Wirth) ("I understood that when I raised funds for the DSCC, the donors expected that I would receive the amount of their donations multiplied by a certain number that the DSCC had determined in advance, assuming the DSCC has raised other funds"); id., at 166 (declaration of Leon G. Billings, former Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)) ("People often contribute to party committees because they have given the maximum amount to a candidate, and want to help the candidate indirectly by contributing to the party"); id., at 99-100 (fundraising letter from Congressman Wayne Allard, dated Aug. 27, 1996, explaining to contributor that "you are at the limit of what you can directly contribute to my campaign," but "you can further help my campaign by assisting the Colorado Republican Party").21
Brief for Respondent 41-42 ("FECA provides interlocking multilayered provisions designed to prevent circumvention").
20 See n. 7, supra; see generally Federal Election Commission, Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees 10 (1999).
21 Contrary to the dissent's suggestion, post, at 477-478, we are not closing our eyes to District Court findings rejecting this record evidence. After alluding to the evidence cited above, 41 F. Supp. 2d 1197, 1203-1204 (Colo. 1999), and concluding that it did not support theories of corruption that we do not address here, see id., at 1211; n. 18, supra, the District
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