New Campaign Rules: Stay Away

By KAREN TUMULTY

Now that the self-congratulation is dying down, politicians and party officials are discovering some of the unintended consequences of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law. "It's only dawning on people now how complicated it is," says campaign-law expert Bob Bauer. The law's central provision, a prohibition against federal candidates' using so-called soft money, will sever many of their ties to home-state political parties, which are not subject to the federal ban. Because federal candidates are barred even from raising soft money, it will be illegal for a Representative or Senator to so much as sign a fund-raising letter for a local candidate, says Federal Election Commission chairman David Mason. Though the law doesn't go into effect until November, party officials are already reacting. Indiana's state Democratic Party notified Senator Evan Bayh and Representatives Julia Carson and Baron Hill that they will probably be evicted from the offices their campaigns rent in the state party HQ in Indianapolis. Indiana Democratic chairman Peter Manous says the party will no longer be able to tout the popular Bayh on its yard signs. Party officials are worried that the new law will further disconnect politicians from their home states. --By Karen Tumulty