Parties gird for House vote on soft money ban.(Chicago Tribune)

WASHINGTON _ As the House prepares to vote on a ban of unlimited soft money contributions to the national political parties, support for a campaign-finance overhaul in the House has begun to fray.

Among Democrats, black and Hispanic lawmakers have begun to express reservations that banning soft money would hinder get-out-the-vote and voter registration efforts in minority communities. Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has already thrown his support to a Republican alternative, drafted by Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio.

House Republican leadership has been meeting one-on-one and in small groups with undecided lawmakers, trying to persuade them to vote against the Democratic bill and to convince them that their political survival is at stake.

"I want to make sure they know what it means to their future and their party's future," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, the group that works to elect Republicans to the House.

The debate on the campaign-finance measure championed by Reps. Christopher Shays, …