The organization was formed by individuals who seek to pool their resources to make independent expenditures expressly advocating the election or defeat of federal candidates.

The agency said it had not found that the group expressly advocated the election or defeat of a federal candidate.

In doing so, the court found that they were not "sham" issue ads and did not expressly advocate for or against a candidate.

The difference between hard money and soft money is that hard dollars, raised under federal limits, could be used to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate.

They do not have to disclose their donors or spending as long as they do not expressly advocate voting for a candidate.

The political parties are allowed to underwrite advertising as long as it does not expressly advocate the election or defeat of specific candidates.

Since Mr. Bush began his presidential campaign last June, he has stated support for certain gun control measures that he did not expressly advocate in the past.

Between 1996 and 2010 the number of "issue ads" that mentioned candidates without expressly advocating for a candidate grew rapidly.

Independent expenditures that are coordinated with parties or expressly advocating a candidate.

The subterfuge was that the party used unregulated "soft money" to pay for "issue ads" that did not expressly advocate the election of the candidate.