Senate refuses to revamp PAC contributions

Wednesday, June 26, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The failure of a campaign finance bill that sought to ban political action committee contributions to federal candidates means the issue is dead in the Senate for the year, Majority Leader Trent Lott says.

"It is very hard to get campaign finance reform in an election year," said the Mississippi Republican. "The feelings on both sides are too strong."

He opposed the bill, which also sought voluntary limits on spending and contributions for Senate races. But other measures might fare better after the elections, "in the cool of the evening rather than in the heat of the day," he said.

More than a decade of deadlock over campaign finance reform continued Tuesday as proponents of a measure lost their attempt to stop a threatened filibuster. The vote was 54-46 -- six votes short of the 60 needed.

Despite bipartisan sponsorship of the bill, Tuesday's vote was largely along party lines. Only one Democrat voted with 45 Republicans for the filibuster, while only eight Republicans joined 46 Democrats to halt it and make way for a vote on the bill.

The reform measure failed despite the backing of Nevada Democratic Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid.

"There's a pervasive cynicism among the public that (Congress) is run by special interests with lots of money and that ordinary people have no influence on the process," Bryan said. "That's an overbroad criticism, but there is some validity to the criticism that there is too much money in the political election process."

Bryan said he would prefer a constitutional amendment limiting the amount candidates for Congress can spend. He noted that the bill defeated Tuesday "in no way would prohibit a Huffington or a Forbes" from using their personal wealth to run for office.

He was referring to Michael Huffington of California and Steve Forbes, who spent millions of dollars running for Senate and president, respectively.

Reid had said he had problems with the ban on PACs. But he still supported the reform bill, partly because it included a fall-back measure if the PAC ban was found unconstitutional.

"It's unfortunate that the Republicans wouldn't even let the bill come up for a vote," said Reid's spokeswoman, Susan McCue. "Changing the way campaigns are financed is important to Nevadans, but we won't have the opportunity to consider it."

But Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who led the opposition, said, "Today's vote was a resounding victory for the First Amendment and for all Americans who want to participate in the democratic process."

The vote, he said, should end the matter for the year, citing "a gentlemen's agreement with the proponents" that allowed the debate and the vote.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who co-wrote the bill with Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., remained hopeful that the Senate might return to it this year.

"We'll see what happens in the House," he said in an interview. "We'll also see what happens in reaction to this loss. I think there can be some repercussions, and I also believe there could be some elections affected in November."

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said his chamber would address the issue in July, but it was unclear whether it would consider the bipartisan House counterpart to the bill.

The measure sought to ban PAC contributions to all federal candidates. But if that were declared unconstitutional, it would simply reduce the maximum PAC contribution from $5,000 to $1,000. The bill also would have ended unlimited "soft money" donations to political parties.

The bill also called for incentives such as discounted broadcast time and mailing rates to Senate candidates who limited total spending to maximums based on each state's size, collected 60 percent of campaign contributions from home state residents, and limited the money they contributed from their bank accounts to $250,000 -- and that only in the largest states.