Soft Money, Hard Politics

Mayor Rudy Giuliani has set up a political action committee to collect the largely unregulated donations known as soft money, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Supporters of Giuliani's bid for the U.S. Senate are also being asked to contribute up to $50,000 a couple to attend the committee's inaugural dinner on March 23, according to The Times.

The dinner invitation states that the Giuliani Victory Committee, formed last week, can accept donations from both personal and corporate accounts without limit.

Bruce Teitelbaum, the mayor's campaign spokesman, released a statement saying the move was necessary "to achieve a level playing field," and was prompted by "the enormous amounts of unethical fund-raising the Justice Department has allowed the Clintons to do."

Giuliani has criticized his Senate opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for her establishment of a soft money committee last fall, but he never publicly ruled out creating one of his own.

In fact, just last week, Giuliani sent out a fund-raising letter for his regular campaign committee complaining that "the Clintons were skirting the law by raising millions of dollars in unregulated `soft money' to help finance Hillary's campaign against me."

Soft money is not subject to campaign contribution limits. Critics say that makes it easier for candidates to skirt campaign finance laws limiting the size of donations.

While Clinton's soft money account is relatively small - it had totaled more than $700,000 as of the end of last year - and Giuliani's is new, both are expected to become more important closer to Election Day, when the two camps will likely pour money into television advertisements and seek large sums quickly.

Through their regular campaign committees, Clinton and Giuliani raised almost $20 million last year, with him leading the way at $11.5 million. It is widely expected to become the most expensive Senate race ever.