McCain-Feingold won't take the money out of politics. He says the parties were as strong or stronger before the explosion of soft money in the 1990s. The quality of their choices at the polls could be affected. Harder on challengers Bennett and McConnell argue that the parties are the one source of real money that challengers can rely on. Banning soft money takes that away, they say.
Soft money is always to the benefit of the incumbent.
There's a parallel debate over whether the new rules favor Republicans or Democrats. The problem with many of these questions is that the real fallout from reform is often notoriously difficult to project. New rules produce new behavior. We have never been able to do that before. Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.