The voices for reform cross party lines, and more than once Congress has tried to pass bipartisan legislation to alter the financing of political campaigns. But University professor Frank Sorauf, a national expert on campaign finance, said campaign finance will not be a major priority for federal candidates this year. The only candidate who talked about reforming the system was Arizona Sen. John McCain, Sorauf said. McCain dropped out of the running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination this spring. Within the debate over campaign finance this election the two core issues are soft money and unregulated issues advertisements, he said.
Soft money is a loophole for big-dollar contributors to donate unlimited amounts of funding.
To skirt around federal regulations, these donors give large contributions to political parties, which are supposed to be marked for party building. The money is not supposed to be used to aid candidate campaigns, Sorauf explained, but benefits them both directly and indirectly. National parties funnel some of the money to state parties, which in turn help candidates through issue ads. Sorauf said this directly helps state congressional candidates, revealing the link between soft money and issue ads. The unregulated ads are not attributed to any group or candidate, and are protected by federal courts under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.