The FEC Ruled That Political Parties Could Fund Mixed Purpose Activities

In 1995, the FEC concluded that parties could also use soft money to help defray the costs of legislative advocacy media advertisements. In 2000, for example, this is a 2003 case, the national parties diverted $280 million more than half of their soft money to the state parties. Not only were such soft money contributions designed to gain access to federal candidates, but they were in many cases solicited by the candidates themselves.