Campaign Reform’s Endless Road

The leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, under increasing pressure from a bipartisan group of reformers, has promised that, sometime, there will be a final, fair, up-or-down vote on campaign finance reform. How about right now?

A majority in the House already has signaled, through prior votes, that it wants real reform. And it’s clear that the people want to change a system that invites widespread abuse and corruption. Californians repeatedly have voted for campaign reform initiative measures that are positively radical compared with the modest changes being sought right now in the federal law.

House leaders claim to want reform as well, although it must be hard for them to keep a straight face when they say it. What they in fact have done is set up a maze of roadblocks designed to kill the reform measure sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.). Their bill, the House version of the McCain-Feingold measure that was scuttled by filibuster in the Senate, survived an assault in June and undergoes trial by fire again beginning this evening.

Back in June, the leadership concocted a parliamentary game that allowed votes to be taken on as many as 100 “poison-pill” amendments to Shays-Meehan, as well as consideration of a dozen alternative and competing bills. This was said to be in the spirit of full and open debate. But the amendments and alternatives are in reality pure flak intended to kill reform.

The first order of business scheduled today is consideration of one of those spurious amendments. This one, sponsored by Rep. John Doolittle (R-Rocklin), purports to protect the freedom of organizations to issue voter guides. But Shays-Meehan advocates contend that their bill already protects such groups. The real purpose of the Doolittle amendment is to effectively gut a major provision of reform, eliminating language that would tighten the rules on unlimited money spent for issue advocacy.

Under current law, groups can spend as much as they want to advance an issue or cause, so long as they do not specifically endorse or oppose candidates for office. But loopholes and technicalities have been so exploited that “issue” campaigns routinely vilify candidates who do not agree with their ideologies. Candidates have no control over this spending, and the ads often become embarrassments even to those they ostensibly are meant to assist. The Doolittle amendment should be defeated, along with any others like it.

The House leadership is mistaken if it believes the reform coalition will unravel under the assault of killer amendments masquerading as reform. And perhaps the message is getting through. The leadership now says it will limit the debate and allow a final vote on Shays-Meehan by Aug. 7. But why wait? A majority of the House is prepared to vote for passage of this reform legislation today.