WASHINGTON - When the Republican Party scooped up a record $30 million at a black-tie gala a few weeks ago, some party fund-raisers called it the last goodbye to the era of big-money political dinners.

Apparently, they forgot about tonight. The party is holding another formal dinner this evening and, once again, President Bush will be the headliner.

Like last month's affair, it will take place at the Washington Convention Center, the only venue large enough to accommodate the more than 5,500 people who have contributed an estimated $28 million to the Republican House and Senate campaign effort, much of it in soon-to-be-outlawed soft money.

With 4 1/2 months left until the election, the Republican and Democratic parties have already smashed the record for soft-money-raising in a non-presidential campaign season.

Their fund-raising blitz has raked in a combined total of roughly a quarter of a billion dollars in soft money - the unlimited, largely unregulated, donations from labor unions, corporations and wealthy individuals.

In the 1998 campaign, the Democrats and Republicans collected a total of $224 million in soft money.

Meantime, a few blocks from the site of tonight's gala, the Federal Election Commission will be meeting to set rules to implement the campaign finance law passed by Congress after years of debate and reluctantly signed by Bush.

The law won't take effect until after the November election.

The law is designed to prevent the national parties and members of Congress from ever raising soft money again.

However, at least one proposed regulation to be voted on by the commission appears to allow federal candidates, including officeholders, to solicit soft money at state party events.

"I think it's a real problem," said Donald J. Simon, general counsel of Common Cause, which opposes that provision.

Money for 'issue ads'

Another proposed rule, offered by FEC Chairman David Mason, a Republican, would "basically gut the state party soft money ban" by allowing state parties to use soft money to air issue ads, which are barely disguised campaign commercials, added Simon.

Late Monday, the FEC issued its latest set of proposed rules, which were regarded as a modest victory for advocates of the new campaign money system.

Loopholes created

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and other co-sponsors of the law had accused the FEC of trying to create "gaping loopholes" in its central provision: the ban on soft money.

The ban is an attempt to remove from campaigns the outsized contributions that critics say have a corrosive effect on politics.

"The rules are better than they could have been but still fall far short of what they need to be," McCain said in a statement issued jointly with Sen. Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat; and Reps. Martin T. Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican.

The FEC's latest draft of its soft-money rules said the commission would largely defer action on the use of soft money by state parties for TV advertising.

Critical of draft

Trevor Potter, a former FEC chairman, called the draft rules a "mixed bag." A crucial issue will be what the FEC decides "on the key question" of how close those TV ads can come to promoting or attacking a federal candidate, said Potter, who served as general counsel of McCain's 2000 presidential campaign.

Paul Sanford of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that has called on the FEC to tighten the proposed rules, said, "There are still some big problems here."

He said that, historically, a decision by the FEC to postpone action on a proposal "has meant weaker rules," once public attention has shifted away.

Because the soft-money ban won't take effect until Nov. 6, the day after the election, both parties are racing to collect all the big money they can for this year's campaigns.

Tickets to tonight's Republican fund-raiser are $2,500 and up. Proceeds from the President's Dinner will benefit the Republican congressional campaign committees in their fight to keep control of the House and win back the Senate in November.

Photo with president

The largest donors will get their picture taken with the president. Contributors of $5,000 or more were given the opportunity to attend private briefings by Republican senators and a dinner last night at which Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, was the main speaker.

As part of a mailing that solicited contributions for tonight's event, donors could get, in exchange for a $150 contribution, a picture of Bush telephoning Vice President Cheney from Air Force One on Sept. 11, hours after the terrorist attacks.

When word of that offer surfaced, Democrats accused the White House of politicizing the national tragedy for partisan gain. Former Vice President Al Gore called it "disgraceful."

Controversy sells

But Republicans claimed to have gotten the last laugh.

They said that, thanks in part to the Democratic attack and a resulting media storm, sales of the photograph, which is part of a three-picture set celebrating Bush's first year in office, brought in more than $1.4 million, or 10 times what had been anticipated.

Party officials said this evening's black-tie extravaganza, at which country singer Vince Gill and his wife, Amy Grant, will perform, is the final big-ticket fund-raiser on the 2002 schedule.

"At this point, it's the last," said a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "Unless something changes."