It's My Party And I'll Buy If I Want To

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Have President Clinton and GOP candidate Bob Dole been fudging federal campaign finance laws? Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group called Wednesday for an independent investigation, claiming both the Republican and Democratic campaigns have spent millions of dollars raised for general "party building" improperly on TV ads directly endorsing the candidates. "Clearly, there is massive spending on both sides, which goes to the edge of legality, and may have crossed over," says TIME's Jeffrey Birnbaum. "Something certainly will be done about campaign finance, either in the courts or in the legislature. But although Bob Dole touched on it in Sunday's debate, it is unlikely that either main candidate really wants to talk about campaign finance reform, considering how much each has benefited from contributions." In order to receive matching funds from the federal government, the candidates agreed to limit spending during the primary campaign to $37.1 million. But Common Cause says each camp has broken the rules, using corporate donations that are not subject to contribution limits, to finance presidential ad campaigns. Ann McBride, president of Common Cause, reports that beginning in 1995, the Democratic National Committee spent $34 million on advertising coordinated by the Clinton campaign. From the beginning of 1996, McBride contends, the Republican National Committee spent $14 million on TV ads to support the Dole campaign. Believing these expenditures do not fall into the category of "party building," McBride says the 1996 election provides the most massive violations of the campaign finance laws since the Watergate scandal. Terence Nelan