GOP, Democrats Set Hot Fund-Raising Pace

Despite widespread allegations of campaign fund-raising improprieties, various national political party committees already have raised $34 million in unregulated funds this year--more than double the amount they rang up during a comparable six-month period after the 1992 presidential election, according to Common Cause, a citizens lobbying group.

The reform-minded organization said Tuesday that Republicans outraised Democrats more than 2 to 1, collecting $23 million, including a $1-million donation by Amway President Richard DeVos and his wife, Helen.

The Common Cause report comes amid growing calls on Congress to ban “soft money,” unrestricted donations from individuals, labor unions and corporations to political parties--ostensibly for “party-building” activities but often funneled to individual candidates. Soft money is at the center of the ongoing congressional investigations into campaign fund-raising practices by both parties.

“Congress must act after the August recess to end the discredited soft money system that is overwhelming elections and poisoning our political system,” said Ann McBride, president of Common Cause.

The group’s report is based on filings to the Federal Election Commission by the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee and each party’s campaign organizations for the House and the Senate--the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican Senate-House Dinner Committee.

All told, the Democrats raised $11,149,367 in soft money and the Republicans raised $23,122,602, according to Common Cause.

For a nonpresidential election year, that amount is staggering and unprecedented, said McBride. In the first half of 1993, the parties raised a relatively scant $13 million. For the comparable periods in 1991 and 1995, the parties raised $14.6 million and $30.6 million, she said.

For all of 1996, a presidential election year, the parties raised a record $263 million in soft money. That compares with $87 million in 1992 and $45 million in 1988.

The $1-million donation by Richard and Helen DeVos was the second-largest single political contribution on record--topped only by a $1.5-million soft-money donation to the Republicans in October 1994 by Amway.

Although momentum in recent weeks has been building to ban soft money, considerable opposition remains in Congress.

Advocates of major campaign finance reform, primarily Democrats, plan to force a floor debate on banning soft money in both the House and Senate in the fall.

They got a boost late last month when three former presidents, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush, called on Congress to ban soft money. Days earlier, a bipartisan group of House freshmen, defying their leaders, proposed their own legislation calling for such a ban.

President Clinton also has advocated a soft money ban, as have former Vice President Walter F. Mondale and ex-Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker (R-Kan.), who were asked by Clinton to help generate public support for campaign finance reform.

Under current law, corporations and labor unions are barred from making contributions in connection with a federal election, although they may give unlimited amounts to political parties.