McCain Campaign Finance Bill to Test Bush
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2000; Page A02
When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) rolls out the latest version of his campaign finance bill, President-elect Bush will face an early -- and critical -- test of his political prowess in dealing with the closely divided 107th Congress.
The impending rematch between the two rivals for the Republican presidential nomination could help shape Bush's relations with both parties and with McCain, a maverick who, in league with Democrats and GOP moderates, may hold the balance of power in the Senate on issues ranging from health care to taxes.
It could also give some clue to whether McCain, who attracted a large national following during his losing presidential bid, can parlay it into enhanced influence in a Senate where he was always something of a Lone Ranger. Although he still regards himself as a conservative on issues such as national security, he has joined the centrists' caucus and espouses its bipartisan goals.
McCain, who crusaded for campaign finance reform for nearly a decade in the Senate and made it the hallmark of his reform-driven campaign for the presidency, has said he intends to push for action on the issue as the Senate's first order of legislative business -- even before Congress starts acting on Bush's agenda.
"I intend to bring it up as early as possible, and I hope we can get it dispensed with before the Bush legislative agenda comes over," McCain said in a recent interview. "They [Republican leaders] want me to delay. You know, hearings before the Rules Committee and all that. But I think this issue has been fairly well ventilated. . . . I think the time has come."
Although the likely outcome of the latest campaign finance struggle is far from clear, advocates of reforming the system were strengthened by the November elections that added at least four senators to their ranks and split the Senate down the middle. This improves chances for passing a ban or curbs on unlimited, unregulated special-interest contributions -- "soft money" -- to political parties, as proposed by McCain and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), but does not guarantee its enactment.
McCain says he believes he now has the 60 votes needed to eliminate the threat of a filibuster by Senate Republican leaders that has blocked action on campaign finance in recent years. Others say they believe he may be a vote or two short but acknowledge he is within reach of his target.
The House has twice approved legislation similar to that advocated by McCain, and if passed by the Senate and signed into law in anything like its current form, the bill would provide for the first major tightening of campaign funding laws in a quarter-century.
"We're at critical mass in terms of negotiations" on a bill that can pass both houses of Congress, said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 and a longtime advocate of tighter rules on campaign fundraising.
"The chances of something passing are probably pretty good if McCain and Feingold recognize that they have to pass something that can be signed into law," said Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), who fought the legislation in the past but says he could support a compromise that passes muster with Bush.
A key unanswered question is what role Bush will play. During the campaign, he said he supported reform, but he stopped short of the full soft-money ban advocated by McCain and embraced an anti-union provision that is regarded as a deal-breaker by Democrats, who have always provided the vast majority of votes for McCain's proposal.
Strategists on both sides of the issue say Bush faces risks whichever way he turns.
If he opposes the bill or tries to emasculate it, critics will accuse him of being anti-reform, and he will lose an opportunity for demonstrating the kind of bipartisan leadership he has been promising. He also risks alienating McCain as an ally on the many issues on which they agree, such as education reform and an overhaul of Social Security. But if he goes along with major curbs on fundraising, he is likely to anger major GOP constituencies -- from gun owners to antiabortion forces and religious conservatives -- who fear their voices could be silenced by too much regulation.
"If Bush deals with McCain, he looks like a reformer, he strengthens his hand," said Thomas E. Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution. "But those who oppose McCain are also some of the strongest constituency groups in the Republican Party."
McCain said he suggested to Bush a few weeks ago that they sit down and talk about campaign finance. Bush agreed, McCain said, but has made no further move to open talks. When asked about the incoming administration's position on McCain's proposal during a recent meeting with Senate Republican moderates, Vice President-elect Cheney passed up an opportunity to either embrace or condemn it.
A showdown -- or perhaps an accommodation -- could come any time after Bush is sworn in Jan. 20 and Congress gets down to serious business.
McCain would not say whether he still intends to follow through on threats to shut down the Senate if it tries to avoid the issue. But he made it clear he does not intend to give up after one vote, as he has done in the past. "I intend to do everything in my power to see we work through the normal legislative process -- and that is debate, amendments and a final vote," he said.
Unless Senate leaders relent and agree to an early vote on the bill itself, McCain said he will seek to attach it to the first piece of legislation that hits the Senate floor. And he will not let them turn to any other business until they have dealt with it, he added.
Although they have been notably quiet on the issue since the election, GOP leaders are expected to argue that Bush deserves a chance for the Republican-controlled Congress to begin work on his own legislative program before the man he defeated snarls up the Senate with a fight over an issue that Bush might prefer to put off.
In the interview, McCain said he has not yet decided what bill to introduce. Last year he confined his initial offering largely to the soft-money ban, which would bar corporations, unions and individuals from giving unlimited donations to political parties. In earlier years, he also included other provisions, including one to regulate advertising by outside groups that seek to influence elections.
McCain contends that his main goal is to get a bill to the floor for debate, amendments and votes and that it doesn't matter what the initial draft contains.
The importance of unregulated, or soft-money, financing for political party groups has skyrocketed in recent elections, nearly doubling just in the past four years.
According to Common Cause, an advocacy group that backs the measure sponsored by McCain and Feingold, national party groups took in $457 million for this year's elections through Nov. 27, compared with $231 million for the comparable period four years ago. Republicans raised $239 million, Democrats $218 million. But the gap has narrowed, and some strategists believe that Republicans may be increasingly willing to accept soft-money curbs in exchange for an increase in "hard money" limits on direct contributions to candidates, where the GOP has a bigger fundraising advantage.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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