Word: meehanics
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...Rundown: ? The Shays-Meehan bill bans "soft money" contributions to national political party committees, but permits contributions of up to $10,000 per donor per year to go to any state, county, or local party...
...cheer went up among the reformers, and eight hours later--just before 3 a.m. Thursday--the House finally passed the campaign-finance bill, as 41 Republicans defied threats from their party leaders and voted for the measure. Sponsored by Democrat Martin Meehan and Republican Christopher Shays, the bill would ban unlimited and unregulated "soft money" donations, $500 million of which were raised and spent in the 2000 election. "This changes the architecture of American politics," said Gephardt, bleary eyed and still aching from his operation on the day after the vote. "This bill will allow the people to be heard...
...long since crept back in. "Any campaign-finance reform law works for a period of time," says Anthony Corrado, a Colby College professor of government. "But it has to be revisited from time to time, or the money will find ways to get back into the system." If Shays-Meehan becomes law, it should help clean up the money game, at least until its reforms are slowly strangled by loopholes. That's a noble fate for a bill that has been so often given up for dead...
...addition to banning soft money, Shays-Meehan would close a current loophole in election law that allows special interest groups and corporations to buy an unlimited amount of issue advertisements just before elections, as long as they avoid directly advocating voting for a certain candidate. The thinly-veiled message of these ads can sway an election at the last second without giving candidates a chance to respond...
Money has always been intermixed with politics, and the Shays-Meehan bill alone would not change that. Indeed, with soft-money gone, the importance of hard (regulated) money contributions will rise dramatically. It appears that this will benefit Republicans, who now run about even with Democrats in soft-money donations but have a significant edge in the hard money arena. Nonetheless, that is a small price to pay for reducing the amount of money polluting politics and for increasing the accountability of candidates for money they receive...