The other incident involved a massive political operation in the 1918 midterm elections. The League formed the first known political action committee in the United States and spent more than $100,000 to defeat US representatives who opposed its policies. The NSL established a rating system to analyze a variety of congressional votes on preparedness measures that it considered critical. However, many of the votes seemed to have little to do with national defense or ignored the complexities of congressional voting, which often involved parliamentary procedure, up-or-down voting, the amendment process, logrolling and agenda setting strategies. Many members of Congress who were for higher defense spending often scored quite low on the NSL's rating system. That did not appear to concern the League, which directed mass mailings and vituperative press campaigns against those members of Congress. The campaign appeared to have an effect, as a number of important members of Congress went down to defeat, and the Democrats lost control of the House.