President Clinton is scheduled to host the 1996 National Presidential Gala, a DNC fundraiser, on May 8. The huge soft money contributions given at tonight's Democratic fundraiser will continue to buy access to the President and other top officials, and will continue to influence government decisions, long after the dinner is over. During virtually all of the first quarter of 1992, no clear leader had emerged in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Trial lawyers gave many of the Democrats' biggest soft money contributions during the first quarter of 1996, the study found. In the first quarter of 1992, incumbent President George Bush was actively raising soft money for his reelection campaign.
Hard money means contributions that are legal under federal law for federal elections.
Soft money means contributions which are outside the limits and prohibitions of federal law, including large individual or PAC contributions and direct corporate or union contributions. National political party committees were required to disclose their soft money contributions beginning in 1991, after Common Cause filed a petition with the FEC, challenging the way in which the FEC was treating soft money.