Clinton to Back Reform of Campaign Financing

Facing rising criticism from ally and adversary, President Clinton is preparing a speech to affirm his support for sweeping reform of the campaign finance system, including restrictions on the party “soft money” spending that has soared this campaign season.

The speech, which may come Friday at a campaign stop in Santa Barbara, would be an effort to defuse attacks on Clinton’s fund-raising practices, including the solicitation of large donations from foreign contributors.

Clinton is expected to endorse a proposal to restrict political campaign spending in exchange for free or reduced-rate television advertising time for candidates.

The president wants to raise the issue of campaign finance reform “in the context of things we should do, and put a priority on it in 1997,” White House spokesman Mike McCurry said.

But campaign reform advocates scoffed at the president’s eleventh-hour conversion to the cause, noting that he has promised reform for four years even as he fattened his campaign coffers with questionable contributions. They also said that any reforms enacted would not take effect until long after the books are closed on the 1996 election--Clinton’s last campaign.

“Why should we believe him?” asked Ellen Miller, director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign financing watchdog group in Washington.

“He promised a thorough cleansing of the system four years ago and then he stood by idly and raised more money and incurred more obligations [to contributors] than any candidate in history,” Miller said.

Ann McBride, president of the citizen lobbying group Common Cause, said: “The question is whether Clinton will just talk or will he act, will he do something real to clean up this corrupt system, which he has taken enormous advantage of.”

McBride added that Clinton’s historical reputation hinges on his commitment to political reform.

“He has to decide if he wants to be remembered as the person who raised the most soft money from the wealthiest people in America or the person who gave a voice back to average citizens,” she said. “That’s what’s at stake here.”

Clinton has given verbal support to a range of political finance reform measures since his first campaign, when he called for reforms in his campaign manifesto, “Putting People First.” “These are principles of reform he’s supported for a long time,” said Ann F. Lewis, Clinton’s deputy campaign manager.

Yet the speech will mark a shift in emphasis for Clinton, who has been virtually silent on the issue since allegations arose last month about the fund-raising conducted by administration aides and the party apparatus. Even Clinton’s book, “Between Hope and History,” which was released at the beginning of the general election campaign, conspicuously avoids discussion of the effect of big money on politics.

Clinton’s plan generally follows the lines of a proposal by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.). Their plan would limit overall campaign spending, eliminate political action committees and severely restrict soft money contributions, which allow individuals and corporations to evade donation limits by giving to generic political “party-building” activities.

Clinton favors this bill in part because of the dozens of pending reform proposals, it has gotten furthest in Congress, McCurry said.

But if Clinton thought his endorsement of the plan would win McCain’s approval, he was wrong.

In a blistering letter to the president Tuesday, McCain said that fund-raising by Clinton and the Democratic National Committee this year “makes a mockery of campaign laws, sneers at the American people’s widespread support for campaign finance reform and makes your protestations of support for reform highly suspect, to say the least.”

McCain serves as a senior advisor to the campaign of Clinton’s GOP challenger, Bob Dole.

In a telephone interview, McCain said that he doubted the sincerity of Clinton’s commitment to campaign finance reform but predicted that public revulsion at the amounts of money spent in this campaign--and the way it was raised--will finally lead to real reform over the next few years.

“If you’re digging for a pony, I believe these scandals will be sufficient motivation for Congress to finally act,” McCain said. “I pray it will be, or the result will be more and more public cynicism and less and less public participation in the process.”

In the spring of 1995, the president agreed, in a widely publicized joint appearance with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), to work together with Republicans toward reform of the system.

Though Clinton brought the subject up again in his State of the Union address in January, the two sides made no progress. And White House officials have insisted they would never disarm unilaterally by limiting their fund-raising while the GOP continued to follow current practices.

Spending on the presidential campaign will rise from about $300 million in 1992 to as much as $800 million this year, experts have predicted.

As aides prepared for Clinton’s campaign finance speech, the president campaigned in Columbus, Ohio, and in Philadelphia, where he urged schools to develop public “report cards” to increase their accountability.

Speaking at Ohio State University, Clinton proposed to have elementary and secondary schools develop and distribute reports that would describe for parents their facilities and their pupil achievement levels. To better equip parents to select schools, these reports should be distributed over the Internet, in newspapers and elsewhere, Clinton said.

Clinton delivered his speech while conducting a running battle with a knot of Dole-Kemp supporters, who shouted “Tell the truth!” and waved signs from seats in the upper level of the basketball arena.

Pointing to the group, Clinton said “they must not have any student loans,” since Dole opposed Clinton’s proposal for direct loans to students.

After a shoving match with sign-carrying Clinton supporters, the protesters finally provoked Clinton to make a rare prediction that his ticket will prevail Tuesday.

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do: I’ll bet they won’t be doing that a week from today,” he declared.

Vice President Al Gore, meanwhile, was forced to use an unorthodox approach to campaigning in Northern California on behalf of Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento), who faces a tough fight in the state’s 3rd District, and Michela Alioto, a former Gore aide seeking to unseat a GOP incumbent in the 1st District.

Gore was supposed to attend a rally in Suisun, but dangerous winds prevented Air Force Two from landing at nearby Travis Air Force Base. So Gore resorted to using a telephone to speak to the gathering from Sacramento International Airport.

Richter reported from Ohio, Broder from Washington. Times staff writer Gebe Martinez contributed to this story.