Campaign Finance Justice
It turned out, the money given to political parties could be considered soft, if it were used for general party building and issue advocacy and not "expressed advocacy" for the election or defeat of any particular candidate. The limit of any contribution to a political party was $20,000 per year. Under President Bill Clinton, Democrats masterfully exploited this loophole and Republicans soon followed. Using soft money, one could argue that Candidate A's position on public policy was wise and prudent, but one could not expressly advocate for the election of Candidate A with words to the effect, "Vote for A." However, the cumulative effect of such ads are much the same as expressed advocacy ads.
In addition, issue ads which were not directly tied to a candidate and funded by an organization independent of a political party or candidate could not be regulated. Pro-life and pro-choice groups, for example, could run ads critical of certain positions without limit. The expenditures of closely allied groups could help a campaign as long as there was no provable collusion between a campaign and independent groups. However, for many independent interest groups it is pretty easy to divine the campaign themes of their favorite candidates and run political ads accordingly.
Both political parties used soft money funneled both through political parties and other groups as a means to fund campaigns. As long as political ads did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate, there was no violation of the law.
Again responding to the mythology that further limiting free speech exercised through the medium of campaign financing would create pristine politics, Congress passed the McCain-Feingold bill. Despite Senator John McCain's (R) joint sponsorship of the bill, it was largely a Democratic bill. This new law prevented the political parties from acting as conduits for soft money in the same way as before. Political parties could still help out with generic "Vote Democratic" or "Vote Republican" ads, but the money for these activities must come from contributions that are limited to $5,000 increments. Larger donations for general party activities were capped at $25,000. Moreover, within the last 60 days before an election, issue ads (ads that do not expressly advocate the election or rejection of a candidate) are limited. To the benefit of Republicans, the individual contribution limit to candidates was doubled from $1,000 per donor per election to $2,000.
Some of McCain-Feingold, particularly the one limiting
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