Bill Bennett: “Salt Lake City has nonpartisan races. There are no limits on contributions and there are no limits on spending, and…”

“Salt Lake City has nonpartisan races. There are no limits on contributions and there are no limits on spending, and somehow we have managed to maintain the pattern of decent mayors through that whole situation. A law professor at Capital University in Columbus, OH, who is an expert in this field, in a recent article in a Notre Dame Law School Journal of Legislation was pointing out with regard to the prospects of eliminating non-Federal money for the parties by Federal legislative action and said, in referring to the Colorado case in 1996: The precedent makes clear that political parties have the rights to engage in issue advocacy-- Which is funded by the so-called ``soft money''-- as other entities. In Colorado Republican Party v. FEC, the Republican Party ran a series of advertisements critical of the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat from Colorado. At the time the ads ran, the Republican nominee had not been determined, and the three candidates were actively seeking that nomination. The Court rejected the FEC's position that a political party could not make expenditures independently of a candidate's campaign.”