Clinton Favored ‘Soft Money’ Ban
In January, a few weeks before beginning his second term, President Clinton agreed to what his advisors considered a radical solution to a rapidly growing political problem: The Democratic National Committee would ban “soft money.”
A soft money ban would mean the DNC would no longer accept the uncapped and largely unregulated contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. These are the very donations--often of $100,000 or more--that are at the heart of the current uproar over improper Democratic fund-raising during last year’s campaign.
It was a bold decision. And Clinton abandoned it within days.
The voluntary soft money ban was the idea of Terence R. McAuliffe, the 1996 Clinton campaign’s chief fund-raiser, according to a variety of sources. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore agreed to it, these people said, while they were vigorously courting McAuliffe to be the new DNC chairman.
The idea of banning soft money at the DNC died with his candidacy, according to sources with knowledge of the deliberations.
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