T
travis_erica_89
Guest
Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) in 2002. The BCRA banned soft money contributions, but left other avenues available for large corporations and special interest groups to contribute to campaigns, such as organizing PACs. I believe soft money served as a way for special interest groups and large corporations to buy access to canidates. Giving soft money contributions were undisclosed and was a way to avoid contribution limits to parties and to avoid disclosure of quid pro quo. This Act also increased the amount individuals could contribute to campaigns and so there has been a rise in the amount of individual contributions in recent years. In addition, hard money expenditures by the parties have increased. I believe that overall, both the Democratic and the Republican parties have had significant financial resources from hard money contributions and that the law has worked to reduce soft money contributions. I think that further changes could be made to make the system more simplified, to better educate the public, and to further reduce the influence of large corporations. I feel that campaigning should be somewhat of a financial equal playing field so that both parties are adequately heard so that the American people can make educated choices.