Mar 27, 2007 -- McCain-Feingold Marks Half Decade of Success: Statement of Meredith McGehee, Campaign Legal Center Policy Director

After two full election cycles, it is abundantly clear that the nation's political process while still facing challenges, is far better off with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) in place. The sponsors of BCRA sought to remove the corrupting influence of unlimited soft money contributions solicited by candidates and officeholders and achieved that goal—ending a practice that had spun out of control. Despite the cries of critics seeking to brand the legislation a failure, the intention of BCRA was never to take money out of politics. But the six- and seven-figure soft money donations to the parties used by corporations, unions and individuals to skirt longstanding campaign finance laws and gain access and influence are now just bad memories.

BCRA can also be judged a success by defying the dire predictions of its opponents. The sky did not fall. The party committees did not go out of business once they were deprived of soft money. In fact, they have raised more in hard money from a vastly expanded donor base in the last two election cycles than they had previously raised in hard and soft money combined. And they do this without relying on massive soft-money contributions of those with the very deepest pockets.

The increased impact of 527 organizations in recent years is not a failure of BCRA, but a byproduct of both the Federal Election Commission's failure to regulate 527 groups as political committees and BCRA's effectiveness in closing the soft money spigot.

In its five years on the books, BCRA has proven a positive influence on our democracy. Its sponsors made clear from the outset that it was not a silver bullet to create clean elections and remove corruption from the process, but the law has made important inroads on those fronts. There is clearly more to be done, but BCRA has provided a solid foundation for the effort.

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