Campaign Finance Reform

Senate Bill 1219, a tough bipartisan campaign finance reform bill, was introduced in the Senate by Senators John McCain (R-Arizona), Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin), and Fred Thompson (R-Tennessee). Although it represents a critically important breakthrough in the fight to clean up the corrupt campaign finance system in Washington, it has not seen much success.

The issue of campaign finance reform (and its corollary bill, S. 1219) will be examined in view of the following topics: external support of the bill, party support, political action committees (PACs), lobbyists, constitutional factors, and extent of public concern. A brief background of S. 1219 will serve as a springboard for further discussion on the above topics. It will become apparent that a bill requiring reform--such as S. 1219--has a tough road ahead of it--especially since such a bill literally bites the hand that feeds it.

The Congress elected in 1994 claimed to have a mandate from the people because of the number of Republicans elected to the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Re

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a proposal for change. There may not be enough external support for sweeping reform. In terms of internal support, or support from federal bureaus and agencies, these entities may have a better understanding of what is workable in terms of government realities, but they are likely to promote plans that will serve their own agendas. In terms of outside support, experts outside the federal government are likely to be the most critical (and they pride themselves on being outside the Washington beltway) but, while they might propose sweeping campaign finance reform, they often lack political savvy or an understanding of what is really workable. As has already been pointed out, interest groups (PACs) often recommend specific program or policy changes and might be fairly well aware of the political realities, but they often have tunnel vision, and assume that the public will agree with whatever the interest group tells them. In fact, the public has been far less concerned with campaign finance reform than either legislators or the President and his advisors had predicted. If the legislative process behind campaign finance reform is examined historically, it becomes apparent that campaign finance reform fell off the congress
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Approximate Word count = 2535
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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