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

“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

Her opponent in the 2000 New York Senate race, Rick Lazio, was leading in the polls until their debate, when he approached her lectern and, finger jabbing, demanded she sign a pledge against soft money.

From Washington Post • Sep. 23, 2016

What is clear is that filming is highly mobile, and studios and producers increasingly rely on this so-called soft money to lower their production costs.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2014

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