One More Vote Planned on Campaign Reform

Proponents of campaign finance reform said Tuesday they plan to force at least one more Senate vote on an effort to revamp the nation’s election financing laws, even as they acknowledged they remain short of the needed votes.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) said they intend to try to attach their proposal to the first bill that comes to the Senate floor next week. But they conceded that they face an uphill struggle.

The House last month passed a measure similar to the McCain-Feingold bill, which would ban unregulated and unlimited contributions to the political parties by corporations, unions and individuals. Such funds were at the core of the fund-raising abuses in the 1996 presidential campaign.

While a majority of the Senate--52 members--voted for the McCain-Feingold bill in a test vote earlier this year, proponents could not muster the requisite 60 votes to overcome a filibuster that blocked the measure from passage.

McCain and Feingold said they decided to try anew in light of the surprise passage of the House bill last month, when it was approved, 252 to 179, despite efforts by GOP congressional leaders to derail it.

“The overwhelming bipartisan endorsement in the House of the [campaign finance] bill shows that the public wants action on reform this year. It is time for the Senate to finish the job,” Feingold said at a Capitol news conference.

In the earlier Senate vote, seven Republicans joined all 45 Democrats to end the anti-reform filibuster. “It’s down to just eight [more] Republican senators,” Feingold said.

No senator has announced a change of heart since the first vote.

Most Senate Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in changing current election financing laws.