This final binge in fundraising—even as the Senate schedules debate on campaign reform measures that have already passed the House—"typifies the mentality of party officials and some officeholders in Washington," says Matt Keller of Common Cause. Soft money—unrestricted donations purportedly only used for party-building activities and not on specific campaigns—have overstuffed party coffers in recent years leading to ever-costlier campaigns.

Keller expects that the record pace of fundraising will only accelerate this year even after President Bush, who now supports campaign finance reform, signs reform into law. The current legislation would not go into effect until after the 2002 election year ends. "I think they will be raising money right up to midnight of the last day," says Keller.

Republican party committees shattered all previous fundraising records for the first year of an election cycle by raising $97.4 million in soft money during 2001, a 141 percent jump from the amount raised in 1997 and 69 percent more than they raised in 1999. The Democratic national party committees also broke previous party records by raising $62.7 million in soft money in 2001, surpassing their record of $49.4 million raised during the first year of 1999-2000 election cycle.

"The soft money frenzy continues," Common Cause President Scott Harshbarger said in a press release. "If parties maintain this fundraising pace through 2002, they will blow away the record half-billion dollars of soft money raised in the 1999-2000 election cycle."

The Republican National Committee led all party committees and raised $46.5 million in 2001—unprecedented for the first year of an election cycle and 80 percent more than the amount raised in 1999, says Common Cause. Combined, Republican national parties increased their soft money dominance over the Democrats, out-raising them by $34.7 million in 2001 compared to their $8.4 million advantage in 1999.

On the Democratic side, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was the leader in raising soft money among the national party committees and accounted for almost the entire Democratic increase in soft money fundraising. The DSCC collected $22.4 million during 2001—nearly twice the amount the committee raised during 1999. The Democratic National Committee raised $21.9 million—$2.5 million more than the amount raised in 1999, but during the same periods the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee decreased the amount of soft money raised, $17.6 million this year compared to $18.3 million in 1999.

The debate over proposals to change the way federal campaigns are financed has continued on Capitol Hill for several years amid growing concern over the political influence of big-money donors. The House of Representatives passed a bill February 14 that would implement the broadest changes in campaign finance law in a quarter century. The battle has moved on to the Senate where its passage is considered likely. Opponents of campaign finance reform say that the fallout from the Enron scandal will make the passage of some reform measures inevitable. They plan court challenges to the legislation as soon as it is signed into law.

Supporters say the legislation would clean up the system by reducing the political influence wielded by corporations, labor unions and other big contributors. Opponents say the measure amounts to an unconstitutional restriction on free speech and an infringement on political expression.

The House legislation—known as the Shays-Meehan bill after its sponsors, U.S. Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, and Martin Meehan, D-Massachusetts—was debated but then shelved in July. It regained momentum in January following revelations about the large-scale political contributions made by Enron Corp. Supporters got the necessary 218 signatures on a petition, meeting the number required to force a vote on the House floor despite opposition from Republican leaders.

In the House, 41 Republicans joined all but 12 Democrats to support the legislation.

Keller thinks campaign finance reform has a strong chance of passing the Senate. "The momentum is on our side now, and we're going to win," he says. He calls the likely success of reform now, after previous efforts failed year after year, "a culmination of years of hard work" but allows that "Enron may have pushed [reform] over the edge."

Keller and other political watchdogs say they will have to next focus on whatever court challenge may follow reform's passage. "We're going to have to defend this thing in court as vigorously as we defended it before Congress," he says.—Kevin Clarke

From US Catholic: "Government for hire"