Enter your e-mail address and click 'Go' to subscribe to The Public i and receive brief overview of each issue. The Buying of the President 2000 .
Hard money is the limited individual contributions given to parties and federal candidates.
Meanwhile, the committees receive, in the most hotly contested congressional races, astounding amounts of soft and hard dollars. Federal candidates often help to raise these large contributions, and the money gets put into accounts that clearly are meant to help them, said Anthony Corrado, co-chair of the new Campaign Finance Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. This blurs the lines between candidate- and party fund raising. It makes the limits tougher to enforce, and raises questions about some of the distinctions in the current law. Berman isn t the only one making contributions to the party committees and candidates that exceed the federal limit.