soft money

American  

noun

1. money contributed to a political candidate or party that is not subject to federal regulations.

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soft money British  

noun

1. politics (in the US) money that can be spent by a political party on grass-roots organization, recruitment, advertising, etc; it must be deposited in a party's non-federal (state-level) bank accounts, and must not be used in connection with presidential or congressional elections Compare hard money

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Example Sentences

The soft money scandal was shut down in 2002 by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act, enacted with strong bipartisan support.

From Washington Post • Jan. 20, 2020

“My family is the biggest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Committee,” she wrote in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 23, 2016

Lazio infamously walked over to Clinton’s podium during the debate, demanding she sign a pledge to forgo a form of donations known as soft money.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 24, 2016

See entries on Citizens United and soft money.

From BBC • Sep. 20, 2016

The delicious naïveté of this argument did not prevail with the legislature of Massachusetts, and soft money was frowned down by a vote of ninety-nine to nineteen.

From The Critical Period of American History by Fiske, John