Soft-Money Giving Rises, Group Reports

The Democratic and Republican parties raised an unprecedented $263.5 million in largely unregulated “soft money” donations during the two-year cycle leading up to last year’s election, a research organization reported. The total was about 2 1/2 times the $106.4 million donated in 1993-94, the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics said. Soft money is given by corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals and cannot legally be spent directly in behalf of a particular candidate.