Kent Cooper, a former senior staff member of the commission and now a consultant on campaign finance matters, agreed with Mr. Mason's assessment of the prospects.

"If they prove successful, you'll certainly see more candidates doing it," said Kent Cooper, who tracks money in politics on the Web site www.tray.com.

"Access is the name of the game," said Kent Cooper of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the influence of money on politics.

"How much money has been pumped into this, we don't have any idea," said Kent Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which tracks political spending.

The cause of death was throat cancer, said Kent Cooper, an assistant staff director of the commission.

Kent Cooper, a former election commission official who is now at PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which tracks money in politics, said some fines disclosed today appear surprisingly low.

"New York is a tough place to find studio space," said Kent Cooper, director of facilities.

It would be hard to find a more iconic symbol of one kind of Western man than Kent Cooper.

"This is a basic requirement," said Kent Cooper, a former compliance director at the Federal Election Commission.

"Those are just the ones we know of," said Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official and co-founder of Public Disclosure.