Campaign finance reforms is an issue that was clearly displayed in the elections two years ago involving Senator John McCain. He used the principles involved as a key point in his platform. The voting public learned about the $1, ooo plate fundraisers and soft money. It started to become clear that if you had more money than your opponent did, then you have a much better chance of winning the election. It has also become clear that without campaign finance reform; our democracy would be in jeopardy. Each election should be based principally on the issues at hand and not on how many times your face is seen on T.V.
During any major election, we continuously see advertisements and commercials stating the candidate's qualifications and his opponent's weaknesses. Each commercial is a political advertisement. A political advertisement is an advertisement showing and displaying why the voting public should vote for a certain candidate. These advertisements are often dressed up with music and flashy technology. In most cases political advertisements takes away from the purity and righteousness of a political election. Political advertisements are not only effective they are also expensive. The candidates have to buy airtime from the networks and various radio stations. That is a god reason why campaign finance reforms are so important. Because the advertisements are so expensive, candidates have to look to donations to pay for them. This is where soft money comes into play. Soft money is political money raised by national and state parties that, though it must be disclosed, it is not regulated by federal campaign finance law because it's for generic "party building." (www.te-smart.org, pg.2) Most soft money is raised at political functions. From big businesses and small supporters, money is given to the candidates campaigns. And of course with bigger donations comes favors. It has been said that you can turn political issues with money.
