Campaign Finance: Constitutional and Legal Issues of Soft Money

Whitaker, L. Paige

Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.

关键词: Elections;    Constitutional law - U.S.;    Soft money;    Constitution;   

RP-ID  :  IB98025
RP-ID  :  IB98025 2003-01-30

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Soft money is a major issue in the campaign finance reform debate because such funds are generally unregulated and perceived as resulting from a loophole in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). More specifically, soft money is considered to be funds that are raised and spent according to applicable state laws, which FECA prohibits from being spent directly on federal elections, but that may have an indirect influence on federal elections. This Issue Brief discusses three major types of soft money: political party soft money, corporate and labor union soft money, and soft money used for issue advocacy communications.