Support Grows for Campaign Reform Bill, Backers Say

In a surprise show of force, campaign finance reform advocates on Thursday said they are within just two votes in the Senate of passing a comprehensive overhaul of campaign financing laws for federal elections.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) hailed “the new arithmetic” as he released a letter signed by all 45 Senate Democrats pledging to vote for such a measure, authored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.).

The rare display of Democratic solidarity, combined with support from two GOP senators other than McCain, brings to 48 the number of senators willing to impose tighter restrictions on a system rife with abuses that have been spotlighted during much of the past year.

Still, obstacles confront the bill. In both houses of the GOP-controlled Congress, Republicans remain distinctly in the minority among the reform supporters. And the biting words by Daschle and other Senate Democrats on Thursday only heightened that division--a fact noted by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the most outspoken foe of campaign finance reform. Above all, reformers remain several votes shy in the Senate of the requisite 60 votes to break an expected filibuster.

“The Republican Congress is not going to pass a campaign finance bill that’s supported by all 45 Senate Democrats,” McConnell said. He expressed “total confidence” he would be able to muster at least 41 votes to sustain a filibuster.

But if that barrier were surmounted, only two additional GOP votes would be needed to pass the measure. That’s because a 50-50 tie would enable Vice President Al Gore to cast the tiebreaker.

The momentum of the debate over campaign finance reform escalated this week when President Clinton, in his first post-vacation speech, vowed anew to push vigorously for congressional enactment of the reform bill. He also plans to raise the issue in his weekly Saturday radio address, according to Daschle. At the same time, there have been stirrings in the House that suggest a nascent interest in tackling the controversy there.

The bid to create momentum for the bill also underscored the increasingly partisan nature of the controversy. Later in the day, Daschle and a handful of Democrats took to the Senate floor to call for action. “The question is, are there two other Republican votes out there?” said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.).

Until now, only 30 Democratic senators had signed onto the McCain-Feingold bill as co-sponsors, along with two Republicans: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Among the Democrats who joined the bandwagon this week was Sen. John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. In an interview, he described his conversion and that of other Democrats as “a psychological closing of the ranks” and “a reaction” to GOP-led Senate hearings on campaign fund-raising improprieties that have focused largely on the Clinton administration and the Democratic National Committee.

The McCain-Feingold bill would ban “soft money”--unregulated contributions to the political parties that are intended for party-building activities but often are diverted to individual campaigns.

The proposal also would halve the current limit on contributions by political action committees, to $2,500. And it would provide free television time and reduced advertising rates in exchange for voluntary spending limits by candidates.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Susan Irby, reiterated his position that it is premature to enact reforms while the congressional hearings are still going on.

In the House, nearly all 206 Democrats privately pledged this week to back the efforts of Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) to disrupt proceedings there as a way to pressure GOP leaders to schedule a vote on campaign finance reform.

Already, Miller and his allies have delayed proceedings by offering motions to adjourn and calling for prolonged recorded votes on routine matters, such as approving the daily journal.

Reformers in the House, including some Republicans, also have begun delivering one-minute speeches on the floor calling for campaign finance reform.