Washington, D.C. - "The movement for getting big money out of politics won an important battle last night, defeating cynical attempts to prevent a soft-money ban from becoming law. Shays-Meehan will shut down unlimited contributions to the federal parties, which is long overdue. The likely passage into law of this measure will demonstrate that a broad coalition, an engaged grassroots and sheer persistence can triumph over recalcitrant, anti-reform incumbents in Congress. And that's a positive message for citizens across this land.

"Equally important, the stage is now being set to examine the $2.2 billion hard money side of the campaign finance system. No one should claim that we have just solved the problem of money in politics. Hard money comes largely from the same sources as soft
money, and it's largely given for the same reasons: to influence policy. As the cost of campaigns, funded entirely by hard money, continues to skyrocket and the dollar chase intensifies, the next campaign finance reform debate will focus on ways of freeing public officials from their dependence on private special interests, such as giving them 'Clean Money' full public financing.

"We have already seen Clean Money/Clean Elections public financing systems become the law in Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. They have reduced private spending on campaigns, increased competition, attracted many new candidates including more women and minorities, and revitalized democracy. We applaud the decision of the sponsors of Shays-Meehan to include a federal study of the results of those Clean Money/Clean Elections laws in their bill, and eagerly look forward to the next phase of the national campaign finance policy debate.