"In fact, not only do I support eliminating soft money, but I support full public financing for campaigns. I am hopeful that once Shays-Meehan passes and is signed into law that we can focus our efforts on passing legislation to provide for public financing.

"As Public Campaign states in its report called ‘The Color of Money,’ it is an indisputable fact of our political system that those candidates and laws favored by wealthy contributors usually prevail over those would-be backers who cannot afford to give such large sums of money."