WASHINGTON -- An election reform group recently called for abolishing the Federal Election Commission, the agency that oversees how campaigns are financed and conducted, on the grounds that it is woefully ineffective. The reformers would replace it with a single administrator.

That proposal has a long way to go, but the FEC has provided plenty of new ammunition to the reformers with its latest regulations for implementing the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law passed in March.

Four Republicans and one Democrat on the six-member commission last weekend approved regulations that amount to creating a gaping loophole in the law's prime provision of barring unregulated "soft" money in federal elections, the reformers say, with reason.

The FEC did adhere to the law's ban on national parties raising soft money and on state parties using such funds for "issue advocacy" ads that really boost or bash federal candidates. But the majority of commissioners in voting on other regulations appeared to open a back door to the continued flow of soft money.

For example, federal officeholders or candidates, barred from soliciting unregulated contributions, will be able to speak at fund-raising events for state parties provided they don't actually ask for money.

Fred Wertheimer, head of the election reform group Democracy 21, calls that "a don't ask, just tell" policy, under which givers will be induced to kick in simply by the participation of the official or candidate. Recipient state parties will then be able to funnel the money into specific campaigns in the guise of supporting voter registration and turnout.

Four of the six commissioners also rather bizarrely pointed the way for big contributors to give to allegedly "independent expenditure" groups to be set up by the national parties as a conduit for soft money. They said the parties may help create or structure these groups until Nov. 6, the effective date of McCain-Feingold, without worrying about the FEC enforcing an existing prohibition of collusion between recipient campaigns and candidates.

Mr. Wertheimer charges that the commission has "created an evasion-free zone" between now and Nov. 6 when it will look the other way. "I've heard of many regulations to prevent evasions of the law," he says. "This is the first time I've heard of a regulation to encourage evasion."

Commissioner Scott E. Thomas, a Democrat who voted against the new regulations, says this one puts "blinders on law enforcement" and could be a vehicle for such groups to take over the responsibility from the parties in elections they help finance. Both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Wertheimer suggest that the commission majority has taken on itself the legislative function of Congress.

Mr. Thomas says the recent actions of his FEC colleagues do not "reflect congressional intent" with regard to the McCain-Feingold law. Mr. Wertheimer says the FEC majority "sat down and wrote its own regulations in a "reckless, irresponsible abuse of office."

Jan Baran, the leading Republican expert on election law, says it is "unclear what relevance" the new regulations will have because many of the controversial provisions may come "under constitutional attack."

The reformers' campaign to abolish the FEC will now have to be put on hold while they fight these latest regulations. According to Mr. Wertheimer, they can seek congressional action or go into the courts against the FEC. He notes an old law, used by the Bush administration to overturn some regulations from the Clinton years, whereby Congress can be asked to vote to vacate them.

Mr. Thomas, for one, says he doesn't favor replacing the FEC with one enforcer appointed by a president, be he Republican or Democrat. Rather, he says, the commissioners need to confine their actions to carrying out the will of Congress.

At least two of the Republican commissioners, Chairman David M. Mason and Bradley A. Smith, were outspokenly critical of the soft-money ban during the enactment process, and seem no less so now.

Jules Witcover writes from The Sun's Washington bureau. His column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.