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By contrast, the two front-runners, Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, have embraced soft money. Candidates are still limited by tough federal campaign laws, which restrict individual donors to a maximum contribution of $1,000 during a political cycle. But there are no restrictions on giving to political parties. Now, the state organizations have become "clearinghouses for laundering soft money," Makinson said.

"What the parties have done for years is encourage big donors to give at the state level, where there are no regulations, and less media scrutiny," he said. "They try to fly under the radar and shift millions of dollars around during the election cycle. In '96, we found all sorts of big-money transfers happening between state parties."

Gore and Bush are both tightening their grips on state party structures around the country. In California, the nation's largest state and a gold mine of big-shot political donors, state Democratic Party leaders have long been in the Gore camp. As Bradley began to surge in polls earlier this year, California Democratic Party chairman Art Torres pledged his loyalty to the vice president and blasted the former New Jersey senator.

"To have an elitist who doesn't connect with real people? Please," Torres scoffed to the San Francisco Chronicle in April. Torres criticized Bradley as someone who "hasn't been out there in the real world ... He hasn't walked the streets of Los Angeles, Oakland or San Francisco.''

With double-digit leads in most states, the Bush campaign team has also begun thinking about next November, planting loyalists in key positions within state Republican parties throughout the country. Bush has already shattered fund-raising records for hard money. Now the campaign is focusing on controlling the millions in soft money expected to pour in to state party coffers in the coming months.

In California, state Sen. Jim Brulte resigned his post as co-chairman of Bush's California campaign to become finance director of the California Republican Party. Brulte will oversee a new multimillion-dollar spending plan, and have the power to direct resources where he sees fit.

In the last national election cycle, soft-money spending topped the $250 million mark, a figure that Makinson said could easily double this time around. "I wouldn't be surprised at all to see soft money spending to top $500 million," he said. "You can bet that all these people who have already maxed out with $1,000 donations to the Bush campaign are going to find other ways to help their candidate out."
salon.com | Nov. 10, 1999

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