Kendra S. Horn: “in the 1996 presidential campaign, our nation witnessed the most scandalous money chase since the glory days of the…”

“in the 1996 presidential campaign, our nation witnessed the most scandalous money chase since the glory days of the big-city bosses and the robber barons. The question we now face is whether we have the will to clean up and toughen our laws or whether we will just accept practices like auctioning off the Lincoln bedroom or allowing foreign governments and corporations to pump money into our political campaigns. The time for campaign reform is now. I support H.R. 417, the Shays- Meehan legislation for comprehensive reform of our campaign finance laws. The Shays-Meehan bill bans political parties and Federal officials from raising or spending any so-called ``soft'' money. Congress thought it had banned ``soft money'' decades ago. In our democracy, we must not permit unlimited, unregulated contributions directly from corporations, unions or wealthy individuals. If a candidate took soft money today, that candidate would be indicted. But the loophole is that party committees have become giant money laundromats that collect and cleanse this otherwise-illegal money. Our legislation stops this game. The bill also ends sham issue-ads. These TV ads rip a candidate to shreds and then ask: ``Let him know what you think.'' Since the ad never explicitly says ``vote against so-and-so'' the current law says these are ``educational issue ads'' and not campaign ads. That is baloney. These ads are purely political and often the most vicious.”