As they’re being talked about in the campaign finance reform bills what do they mean?
I’ve heard the terms bounced around, and heard different definitions for them. I figured the Straight Dope would provide a good definition.
This is far from the authoritative answer, but:
“Hard Money” – Contributions to a specific candidate. Limited by federal law.
“Soft Money” – Contributions not to a specific candidate, although it may be used to support a specific candidate. Example: “Dairy PACs” which will then support certain politicians. Unlimited since theoretically beyond the control of the donor but the reality is the donor has a pretty good idea where the money is going to do. Soft Money can be used to, e.g., run “issue ads” in a certain state which obviously favor one candidate over another.
An example of Soft Money.
Joe Schmoe starts a non-profit organization, The Commie Pinko League. Anybody can give as much money as they want to the CPL, because the CPL is not a political candidate or party. The CPL then produces and airs television advertisements for Hillary Clinton.
While the things described in the previous posts certainly occur, they reflect the illegal use of soft money. Soft money is supposed to be used to support neutral political activities. But it can be misused to indirectly help particular candidates without any laws being broken.
For example, soft money could be used to fund a massive campaign telling voters how important a balanced budget amendment is. Millions can be donated to this supposedly neutral issue. The ad campaign convinces large numbers of voters that a balanced budget amendment is a good thing.
Meanwhile Candidate Smith is running against Candidate Jones. Smith has publicly stated he favors a balanced budget amendment; Jones has said he doesn’t. So the supposedly neutral ad campaign will generally win votes for Smith even though none of the ads endorse him or even mention his name.
Hard money is extremely limited by federal law. $1000 per candidate per election is the maximum a person can give. There are many, many people out there who want to give more money than that to a candidate. To get around this limit, they found creative ways to use the “soft” money provisions of campaign finance law.
BTW, soft money can also be used to support a particular political party, instead of just issue advocacy. So a group can buy favor with the Democrats or Republicans as a whole, but not with specific Senators and such.
Good link: Soft and Hard Money in Contemporary Elections: What Federal Law Does and Does Not Regulate