Friday, August 18, 2006

The Soft Money Loophole

Common Cause has released a report that reveals yet another way that entities have circumvented New York's incredibly lax campaign finance laws.

"Soft Money" is theoretically provided to political parties for "party building purposes." At the Federal level, soft money contributions are banned. In New York, they are unlimited.

As Common Cause notes, "Parties are not supposed to use [soft] money to support particular candidates, but this legal barrier does not hold up in practice." There have been $53.2 million in soft money contributions since 1999, according to the report.

That's one heck of a loophole.

Categories: General, Campaign Finance

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