Statement of the Campaign Legal Center on the "Soft Money Reintroduction Scheme of 2005"

All Members should understand that only the proposal being supported by Reps. Shays and Meehan today will stop 527 groups from becoming the newest "cash for access" scheme in American politics. The legislation being proposed by Reps. Pence and Wynn may be titled "The 527 Fairness Act," but it might more accurately be called the "Soft Money Reintroduction Scheme of 2005."

The legislation Reps. Shays and Meehan have introduced - "The 527 Reform Act of 2005" - was carefully drafted to apply the same rules to 527 groups that apply to all other federal political committees. If those groups aim to influence federal elections, they can do so freely. But they must use hard money for those activities, and properly disclose them - just as candidates and political committees do. Activity by state parties or other groups aimed only at state or local races is specifically exempt from this legislation, as are all nonprofit 501(c) groups.

Even many campaign finance skeptics have acknowledged that BCRA was a resounding success, and the Shays-Meehan legislation is essential to keeping those hard-won gains in place. As Washington Post columnist David Broder - a former opponent of McCain-Feingold - recently wrote, the law achieved several key goals. It ended the corrupt "cash for access" system of legalized bribery that had grown up between the political parties, federal officials and corporate and labor union "soft money" contributors. And it strengthened the political parties by encouraging them to return to their roots - real voters, not corporations or unions or a handful of wealthy individuals. As a result, the parties raised a record $1.2 billion in the 2004 federal elections, and brought millions of new smaller donors into the system. (To read the Broder column click here.)

The Pence-Wynn legislation, on the other hand, is an attempt by two former BCRA opponents to gut the law they could not defeat on the House floor in 2002. By repealing the aggregate limit on the contributions individuals can give to party committees in an election, the bill would make it possible for a federal officeholder to solicit, and a wealthy individual to contribute, up to $1,160,200 in a single cycle. And because parties can transfer funds among accounts, that extraordinary amount could all end up at a single committee - the RNC, the DCCC, etc. The current limit on the amount an individual can contribute to political parties during a two-year cycle is $61,400.

According to Campaign Legal Center President and General Counsel Trevor Potter , that result "would undermine the basic foundation of campaign finance law: that contributions can, and should, be limited to a relatively low amount to reduce the opportunity for the corrupt sale of access and influence." Potter is a former Federal Election Commissioner and Chairman.

"Election 2004 was a smashing success for the political parties," Potter said. "It was also a significant step forward for our democracy. We should be celebrating and shoring up those successes, not throwing in the towel."