Bill Pascrell: “If the average campaign costs $660,000, we know that we cannot put a cap on it due to a Supreme Court decision, but…”

“If the average campaign costs $660,000, we know that we cannot put a cap on it due to a Supreme Court decision, but working together I am sure we can come to specific advocacy issues of ourselves, such as banning soft money. Because if you have $10 to spend in your campaign and not $660,000, and third-party advocacy groups can spend whatever they wish, that is not controlling expenditures in a campaign. The gentleman knows it, and I know it. So I believe this Shays-Meehan is simply attempting to ban soft money so that all of the hard money that is spent is disclosed. That is a critical issue, Mr. Chairman. We want the dollars, we want the names and the addresses of people who contributed to our campaigns. That is a very underlying argument within Shays-Meehan, disclosure, the banning of soft money. And the sooner we do it, the better. I think that this is what this is all about, what we are going to open up here, and trying to go in the opposite direction. What we are going to open up is more advocacy, more issue advocacy, more spending of money, not only 6 months or 6 weeks but 6 days before a campaign. I believe Shays-Meehan is on target. I believe we cannot equivocate. This amendment is a poison pill.”