In response to Rob Kelner’s post, The Truth About National Political Party Fundraising, CFI has updated its release.

NOTE: This release has been revised to add the years 1992-1998 to the bar chart, while leaving the text of the release unchanged. 1992 was the first election with disclosure of soft money. The purpose of the revision is to clarify the following point: 2000 and 2002 represented by far the high points before McCain-Feingold for party fundraising (hard and soft money combined.) After McCain-Feingold, the parties raised about as much hard money at 18 months between 2004 and 2010 as hard-and-soft money combined in 2000. They also raised at least 50% more in hard money alone in 2004-2010 than in hard-and-soft money combined between 1992-1998. In 2012 the parties’ hard money at eighteen months exceeded hard-plus-soft in 2002. The evidence therefore shows that national parties after McCain-Feingold quickly rebounded in their hard money receipts alone to levels that equaled or exceeded their historic levels of combined hard-plus-soft money.