Push for Campaign Reform Test Votes Spurs Senate Clash

Prospects for building bipartisan support for campaign finance reform appeared to dim further in the Senate on Friday as opposing sides clashed over an attempt by Democrats to guarantee test votes early next week on rival versions of the legislation.

In a surprise move, Senate Democratic leaders proposed a pair of amendments embodying both the bill passed by the House last month and a scaled-back version sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.). The Democrats also filed motions to force floor votes on their two measures next Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said the move was designed to ensure that senators have a chance to go on record for or against each version of the bill, without having to worry about any floor amendments that might be added during the current debate.

But the move touched off a sharp reaction by both opponents of campaign finance reform and by McCain, who warned that the Democrats’ ploy would dampen hopes of attracting more Republicans to his own proposal in an effort to choke off an expected conservative-led filibuster.

McCain and Feingold had pared back their reform bill and invited lawmakers to propose amendments with a view toward giving more senators a personal stake in the legislation.

Last year, the Senate defeated a tougher version of the McCain-Feingold bill--a measure similar to the one passed this year by the House--after Republicans staged a filibuster to block a floor vote on it. Senate rules require 60 votes to choke off a filibuster; McCain and Feingold won only 52.

Proponents have little expectation that even the scaled-back measure will pass the Senate this year, but sponsors hope they can increase support for their efforts to build a base for successive attempts in 2000 and 2001.

But on Friday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other leading opponents of campaign finance reform complained that the Democrats’ move had violated the spirit of McCain’s attempt at coalition-building.

He also raised the possibility that, as a result of the Democrats’ move, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) might halt the debate over campaign finance reform Tuesday, rather than permitting it to continue until Wednesday, as originally planned.

The series of developments left McCain and Feingold in the unusual situation of having to beg their Democratic supporters to withdraw their proposals--including their petitions to force test votes on each of the plans Tuesday afternoon.

“Have no doubt about the effect of this,” McCain warned in a floor speech. “If this . . . is adopted, it will be the end of campaign finance reform.”

Feingold also urged lawmakers to defeat the Democratic proposals. He said proponents “need to be willing to vote against some amendments we favor in order to get the [McCain-Feingold] bill through.”

The McCain-Feingold bill would ban the use of “soft money”--the largely unregulated contributions by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to political parties. In recent years, the parties have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in such contributions.

The House-passed version also would limit the use of “issue” advertising--which escapes regulation by focusing on a candidate’s record on specific issues rather than directly urging voters to support the individual--a provision especially disliked by Republicans.

Hopes that the debate on campaign finance reform would be kinder than in previous years were dashed Thursday when conservatives led a sharp attack on McCain for suggesting that soft-money contributions had corrupted the American political scene.