and qualified for federal matching funds. It is becoming increasingly apparent with every set of elections that only wealthy candidates can win an elected office, because the average citizen has been priced out of the race.There are actually laws that prohibit the main contributors of soft money, such as corporations, unions, and foreign nationals, from contributing to a campaign. This is another reason politicians had to search for a loophole such as issue ads. The main laws sited by proponents of campaign finance reform are the Tillman Act of 1907, the Taft-Hartley law of 1947, and the Watergate law of 1974 (Williams 4).The Tillman Act of 1907 prohibits corporate money from being used in campaigns. Yet, many corporations donate hundreds of thousands of dollars of soft money to political parties in hopes of gaining favor with a president or senator. For example, many industrial companies donated large amounts of money to the Bush treasury. In turn, they hoped Bush would lessen the pollution standards for factories and also raise the tariff or foreign oil and steel. A recent black-tie dinner orchestrated by Bush and company brought in $24,000,000 for the Republican Party. Tables were sold for $25,000 a piece. It included more industrial companies looking for the pollution standards to be lessened, nuclear-plant owners hoping the government might support a nuclear reactor burial ground, and oilmen trying to convince the President or Vice-President to lift embargoes by the Unites States against countries such as Iran and Libya (Gillon 42). Another example of a corporation buying influence with government administration is Floridas Fanjul family, owners of the Flo-Sun sugar company. Statistics gathered by J. Bradley Keena, a well-known political commentator, indicate that in the presidential race of 1995-1996, Flo-Sun donated $410,000 to both the Democratic and Republican parties. Keena states that the apparent result is A continuation of...
