Word: campaign
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...issue ads." These ads, run by the parties and by outside groups, usually stop just shy of telling voters to support or oppose a candidate, thus escaping most election-law oversight. This week, for instance, the conservative Americans for Tax Reform is running a $4.2 million televised ad campaign touting the Republicans' tax bill in seven states with vulnerable G.O.P. Senators, and other groups are running ads targeting legislators on the proposed Patients' Bill of Rights. If soft money is banned but issue ads are left unregulated, many experts believe, donors will simply route their money to outside groups, which...
...companies have already closed their vaults. General Motors, Monsanto, AlliedSignal and Ameritech swore off soft money in 1997 and have largely stuck to their decision. Wall Street buyout pioneer Jerome Kohlberg has formed an advocacy group that backs candidates who favor campaign-finance reform, and has assembled a cadre of retired corporate chieftains, plus mega-investor Warren Buffett, in support of the effort. "This is the first time a significant number of people in the business community have said enough is enough," says Charles Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development...
...Capitol Hill, campaign-finance reform remains the crusade that can't quite succeed yet just won't die. Last year Shays' bill, co-sponsored by Democrat Martin Meehan, passed the House by a wide margin, even drawing 61 Republican votes. It is likely to pass again when it is brought up in September, despite attempts by the Republican leadership to kill it with parliamentary maneuvering. The real hang-up is in the Senate, where majority leader Trent Lott has promised that a bill co-sponsored by McCain and Democrat Russ Feingold will be voted on by Oct. 12. The measure...
...favor of reform. Yet even they admit that while voters claim to be revolted by the system, reforming it does not seem to be at the top of their to-do list. "Voters have developed such low expectations of politicians that they don't think anybody is credible on campaign reform," Bradley told TIME. "It's kind of the ultimate triumph of interest-group politics that we've reached the point where people say it won't even work...
Even if Congress moves to restrict the money flow, some experts say, the effect might not be what the reformers hope for. "Almost exactly the same amount would be spent but in different ways," predicts University of Virginia veteran campaign-finance watcher Larry Sabato. Companies, trade groups and unions would fund more grassroots organizing, phone banks, voter-registration drives and ads, among other things, he asserts. Assuming that ever creative political pros will always find--or make--a hole in the dike through which more money can pour, some argue that trying to limit contributions isn't the best approach...