Soft money' debate Dick Morris, former pollster to President Clinton, wrote an advice column to incumbents last week urging them to ban soft money because it really helps challengers. For instance, when Democrat Tom Carper defeated incumbent Republican William Roth in Delaware last year, the Democratic Party spent twice as much helping Carper as Carper did, said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the Cook Political Report. Corrado, of Colby College, said there's some truth to the idea that soft money can help challengers. But he also notes that members of Congress are raising more and more soft money for use on their own re-election campaigns. He thinks a soft money ban would improve competitiveness in congressional races.
Many reformers agree.
But many senators want to raise that, as part of a broader deal to pass the soft money ban. They point out those caps are more than 20 years old and haven't been adjusted for inflation. Some analysts say raising these limits is a boon to incumbents, since they typically draw from a larger pool of big donors. Republicans like the idea a lot more than Democrats. But it will be a critical fight this week.