The deal Donald Trump struck with the Republican National Committee this week that allows wealthy supporters to give nearly $500,000 to finance his campaign and get-out-the-vote activities made it official: The parties are back in the big-money business.

Fourteen years after a landmark campaign-finance overhaul clamped down on the flow of unregulated money to party coffers, both Republicans and Democrats are raising huge contributions again with gusto.

Thanks to a pivotal 2014 Supreme Court decision and an expansion of party fundraising slipped into an appropriations bill later that year, the RNC and its Democratic counterpart have been able to vastly increase their top donor levels by pooling numerous accounts and affiliates together into jumbo joint fundraising committees.

The Trump Victory fund, a new partnership announced Tuesday, will take donations up to $449,400 that will be split between his campaign, the RNC and 11 state parties. A wealthy contributor who gives the maximum to both the victory fund and the RNC’s most-elite donor program can shell out as much as $783,400 this cycle, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Supporters of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton can rack up even higher totals because of her decision to launch a 32-state joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee last fall. Between that fund and the DNC’s top-tier convention package, an individual donor could give more than $1.1 million this cycle to support her campaign and the party.

The result, say advocates for stricter campaign finance rules, is an environment akin to the 1990s, when the parties took in huge amounts of “soft money” that was supposed to be used for general party-building but also seeped into political activities.

“What we’re watching here is theater of the absurd,” said Fred Wertheimer, who leads the watchdog group Democracy 21.

Boosters argue that the mega-donations will help restore the influence of the parties, who have lost ground to well-funded independent groups.


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