John Doolittle: “What I would like to see happen is to deregulate. If you deregulate, they are not going to have soft money. It will not…”

“What I would like to see happen is to deregulate. If you deregulate, they are not going to have soft money. It will not be needed. Issue advocacy will dramatically drop. Look at what went on in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the gubernatorial elections, where they had men and women of average means running. I think the current governor is the son of a butcher. They had the campaigns running. They were able to raise their money. It was all reported. Nobody claimed that it was an aristocracy or nobility. No, there was no hint of graft in that election, and they do not have these regulations. Where we have had the present scheme of regulation due to inflation over the years, money has had to come in through other ways because the hard money has never been adjusted for inflation since 1974. And yet, we have had two-thirds of those limits eroded by inflation. If I may ask the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson), why do you folks not agree to adjust those limits at least for inflation?”