'Soft money' convention donations eyed

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- A watchdog group says the two major U.S. political parties have accepted millions in "soft money" donations from lobbyists to stage their national conventions.

An upcoming report from the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute says millions of dollars in such donations are being given to the host committees of the Denver Democratic convention and the Minnesota Republican meeting from interest groups that have spent $700 million on lobbying since 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

It said the situation prompted the campaign of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to promise changes in convention funding.

"Moving forward, one of Senator Obama's reform priorities will include changes in the way party conventions are funded to assure they can be run without dependence on soft money," a campaign spokesman said.

A spokesman for the likely Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., however, said there are more urgent concerns.

"John McCain believes that it is drastically more important to reform our country's energy policy, tax code and the wasteful way the federal government treats taxpayer money than it is to try and provide further prohibitions on an entity (the convention host committees) that is already barred from political activity by law."