Latest News from Common Cause
Campaign Finance Reform Bill Meets Corrupt Resistance in Senate -- Who Will Win This Fight?
(Publisher's note -- would campaign finance reform help our society? We'd like to find out. You can help to keep this bill chugging along by contacting your Senators.)
Statement Of Common Cause President Scott Harshbarger
On Tuesday's Senate Action On Bipartisan McCain-Feingold
Campaign Finance Reform Legislation
The campaign finance reform effort in the Senate made some progress today, even though passage of a bill was again blocked by the pre-Halloween trick-or-treat parliamentary maneuverings of reform opponents.
First, eight Republican Senators have now broken ranks with Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), including three new Republicans - Senators Sam Brownback (KS), William Roth (DE), and Tim Hutchinson (AR). They join all 45 Democrats and Senators John McCain (AZ), Susan Collins (ME), Jim Jeffords (VT), Olympia Snowe (ME), and Fred Thompson (TN) in supporting a ban on soft money.
Second, it is clear that other Republican Senators are becoming increasingly uncomfortable in following lock-step behind Senator McConnell and his defense of the corrupt status quo. A group of five additional Republican Senators, led by Senator Chuck Hagel (NE), signaled their interest in actively engaging reform proponents in an effort to reach agreement on effective reform legislation.
As reform leaders Senators McCain and Russell Feingold (D-WI) said today, this issue will be back. Common Cause will continue to press for reform until the growing majority of the Senate is allowed to enact the reforms supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans.
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Common Cause is a nationwide, nonprofit, and nonpartisan citizens’ lobbying organization working for open, honest, and accountable government at the federal, state, and local levels.
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