Dead Law: The Federal Election Finance Regulations, 1974–1996

Abstract

In the aftermath of the 1996 election campaigns, scholars, journalists, policymakers, and campaign finance professionals alike declared the House election financing system “broken” and “out of control.” That cycle saw party officials raising unprecedented amounts of “soft money” and directing it into specific federal campaigns. Coalitions of interest groups spent tens of millions of dollars attacking or defending candidates in “issue advocacy” campaigns, and disclosed neither their spending nor the sources of their funds to the Federal Election Commission. Groups like the Christian Coalition distributed tens of millions of “non-partisan” voter guides with thinly-disguised endorsements of candidates, again without disclosing their activity.