Last year, the bypass they used was soft money, the term for unrestricted donations to political parties.

Those contributions fall outside any potential ban on soft money, unrestricted donations from corporations and unions, already approved by the Senate.

But what to do about the unrestricted donations to the parties, called soft money, is probably the most contentious element on the table.

The term soft money refers to unrestricted donations used for political party activities rather than for individual candidates' campaigns.

Republican leaders fiercely oppose the campaign finance measure, which would ban the large unrestricted donations to political parties known as soft money.

This election, with the explosion of soft money, these unrestricted donations will play an even bigger role.

That ended the last major Senate challenge to the effort to ban unrestricted donations to political parties.

The parties are supposed to use these unrestricted donations for "party building" activities like get-out-the-vote drives.

The legislation that passed the Senate has at its heart a ban on the unrestricted large-dollar donations to the political parties known as soft money.

The Foundation can receive both restricted and unrestricted donations.