The panel was more or less in agreement that raking in money from corporate donors is now a bi-partisan proposition. Miller added that 90 percent of the candidates that spent the most money in their 1994 campaigns won, but that only 25 percent of their campaign kitties came from PACs. The rest came from wealthy donors in the form of soft money - money raised by the Republican and Democratic national party committees funnelled into state parties to evade federal laws that limit the size and sources of contributions. The more attention that is focused on the role of big money in politics, the more likely that people will demand real reform. This year's presidential campaign is a good place to begin.
Soft money is big money.
All this cash is laundered through national committees to the state committees and is then used to affect federal elections. There are federal campaign finance reform bills before Congress. It would dramatically reduce special interest influence money by restricting PAC contributions, large individual contributions and lobbyist contributions. It would also ban soft money and bundling of contributions. Lewis said the voters should keep after the presidential candidates and find out where they stand on reform.