Filibuster of Reform Bill Is Unlikely

Republican foes of campaign finance reform legislation signaled Tuesday that they probably will not try to talk the bill to death through a filibuster or other delaying tactics, even as they continued to review their dwindling options for blocking it.

“There is no desire to delay this indefinitely,” Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said of the bill, which aims to diminish the influence of big-money contributors in politics.

Reform proponents are pushing for the Senate to approve the version of the bill passed by the House earlier this month. That would send the legislation to President Bush, who would then be under heavy pressure to sign it into law.

Lott and others who oppose the bill still are exploring ways to amend it. That could either slow its progress or send it to a House-Senate conference committee, where proponents fear the measure could be buried. The filibuster option, however, seems to be receding.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a leading opponent of the bill, has arranged to meet today with one of the main reform advocates, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), to discuss how the bill will be handled on the Senate floor. While McConnell has not yet conceded defeat, he is now striking a more conciliatory pose than in years past, when he relied on filibusters to kill similar reform legislation.

“I believe we ought to be able to come to agreement on how, in an orderly fashion, to complete the bill,” McConnell said Tuesday. The measure’s main provision would ban the unlimited, loosely regulated contributions to national political parties known as soft money.

In an interview on CNBC on Tuesday night, McCain said he anticipates cutting a deal with McConnell that will lead to the bill’s Senate passage. His optimism was based in part on the expectation that his side has the 60 votes needed to thwart a filibuster.

Indeed, the prospects for killing the bill with a filibuster sustained a blow late Monday when Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said he would not support such a move. Nelson was one of three Democrats to vote against a version of the bill the Senate approved last year, 59 to 41.

Several senators have been shifting their positions in recent days on a filibuster. But Nelson’s announcement made it increasingly likely the bill’s proponents could choke off such an effort.

“It sounds like we may be moving toward a resolution of the campaign finance issue without a filibuster,” said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), who joined McCain in sponsoring the Senate version.

Meanwhile, a Senate debate on another bill has sparked an effort to revive a proposal that would require television stations and networks to offer more favorable terms to politicians buying advertising time.

The provision would prevent stations from preempting political ads even if another advertiser offers to pay more for the same spot. Stations are already required to offer politicians discounted rates. But many candidates complain that their ads often air in the wee hours of the night, bumped from prime-time spots whenever a station can find a higher bidder.

Language barring such preemptions was contained in the campaign finance bill the Senate passed in April. But amid lobbying from the broadcast industry, the provision was discarded in the House version.

Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), the provision’s principal backer, has moved to attach it as an amendment to a bill that would help states upgrade their election machinery. A Senate vote is scheduled on the bill today.

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Times staff writer Greg Miller contributed to this report.