The Money Trail:

Campaign Finance Reform: What’s the Bottom Line? Who benefits?   The Center for Response Politics, (a non-partisan, non-profit research that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and public policy), has put together some dollar figures on the political impact of the Shays/Meehan and the Ney/Wynn proposals.  (http://www.opensecrets.org).

Campaign Finance Reform:
What’s the Bottom Line?

With the House of Representatives debating campaign finance reform, questions are being raised about how the two leading proposals – one sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin Meehan (D-Mass.) and the other by Reps. Robert Ney (R-Ohio.) and Albert Wynn (D-Md.) – would impact political fund-raising. The answer, of course, is that no one knows for certain.

To shed some light on possible outcomes, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has put together the following numbers on the giving patterns in the 1999-2000 election cycle.

Hard Money: Individual Contribution Limits to Candidates*
(Current law: $1,000 per election; Ney-Wynn bill: retains current law; Shays-Meehan: $1,000 per election to House candidates, $2,000 to Senate candidates)

During the last election cycle, 7 percent of the donors who contributed $200 or more to any one candidate gave the maximum amount of $2,000 to that candidate. The donors who "maxed out" their contributions to a candidate accounted for $114.6 million, or 19 percent, of the $600.6 million given by all contributors of $200 or more. Donors who maxed out to Democratic candidates accounted for 22 percent of the total raised by Democrats in contributions of $200 or more, while donors who maxed out to Republican candidates accounted for 17 percent of the total raised by Republicans in contributions of $200 or more.

Hard Money: Individual Aggregate Limits*
(Current law: $50,000 per cycle; Shays-Meehan: $95,000 per cycle; Ney-Wynn: $75,000 per cycle)

A total of 297 individual contributors gave the maximum of $50,000 in hard money to candidates, PACs, and party committees in the 2000 elections. Of those, 99 contributors gave exclusively to Democrats, 73 gave solely to Republicans, and 125 gave to both parties. Democrats raised a total of $9.9 million from contributors who reached the aggregate hard money limit, while Republicans raised $6.4 million.

Hard Money: Small donors (less than $200)

Democrats raised 32 percent of their hard money from individuals in amounts less than $200 in 1999-2000. Republicans, meanwhile, raised 55 percent of their hard money from small donors. Overall, Democrats raised $63.1 million out of $194.8 million from small hard money donors. Republicans raised $216.2 million out of $394.8 million from small hard money donors.

Soft Money
(Current law: unlimited; Ney-Wynn: limited to $75,000 per year; Shays-Meehan: prohibited to federal party committees)

Four percent of all individual and organizational soft money donors in 1999-2000 contributed $75,000 or more. Democrats raised 78 percent of their total soft money from donors of $75,000 or more, while Republicans raised 75 percent from large soft money donors.

*Note: Figures may represent contributions from individuals who exceeded the maximum amount allowed by current law. These may represent excessive contributions, or they may represent contributions that will be reattributed to another donor or election cycle.