President George W. Bush signed the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 (“BCRA”) into law on March 27, 2002, and when it became law on November 6, 2002, BCRA marked the first significant revision of the federal laws controlling the financing of campaigns for federal office since the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (“FECA”). Title I of BCRA banned national parties and officeholders from raising and spending “soft money.” Soft money can be defined simply as contributions that are not subject to FECA’s contribution regulations while “hard money” refers to contributions that do fall under FECA’s domain. FECA established a series of mandatory limits on contributions to candidates and mandatory ceilings on expenditures. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), one of the bill’s co-sponsors who has fought for significant campaign finance reform for more than half a decade, hoped the law would “restore the public’s faith in government.” President Bush hailed BCRA by stating that “[a]ll of the American electorate will benefit from these measures to strengthen our democracy.”
The Future of Soft Money in Federal Elections: The 527 Reform Act of 2005 and the First Amendment