Albert Russell Wynn: “I have to say tonight that I am always very disturbed when I hear people say our way is the only way, whether it comes…”

“I have to say tonight that I am always very disturbed when I hear people say our way is the only way, whether it comes from some sort of fanatic or whether it comes from a so-called reformer. The fact of the matter is that politics is the art of compromise, and we, in working with the Ney-Wynn amendment, have tried to fashion a serious compromise. Let us talk first about soft money. Under the current law it is reported in today's paper the top 10 contributors have given between $1.3 million and $3.6 million. Under Ney-Wynn, we first said $75,000 per contributor to the national party. In the spirit of compromise, we reduced that significantly down to $20,000 per contributor to the national party. I do not think anyone can say that this is not a significant reduction in soft money or a legitimate attempt to address the concerns, nor a legitimate attempt at compromise. In addition to that, we limited the use of the money. People said we are concerned about national party attack ads. We prohibit national party attack ads. But we do say the soft dollars, this limited amount of soft dollars, can be used for legitimate party-building activities, that political parties ought to be able to do voter registration, voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities.”