Democrats Seeks Votes for Finance Reform
Politico reports on the Democrat's efforts to seek the votes for the new campaign finance bill:
Despite a last-minute assist Monday from President Barack Obama, Senate Democrats are likely to fall short of the votes needed to break a filibuster of the campaign finance reform bill set for a key vote Tuesday.
The DISCLOSE Act — developed in response to a Supreme Court ruling revoking many of the nation’s campaign finance laws — would force corporations to disclose their contributions to federal campaigns. The bill already has cleared the House, but even with support from the White House, and changes made late last week by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) aimed at making the bill more appealing to moderates, the path to the 60 votes needed in the Senate is just as bleak as it was weeks ago.
Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, would not say definitively Monday whether leadership had corralled every Democratic vote — Ben Nelson of Nebraska, for example, broke with his party in 2002 to vote against the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill. His office did not respond to requests Monday about how the senator, who also has voted against his party on recent unemployment benefit packages, intends to vote Tuesday.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine may have delivered a fatal blow to the bill Monday, announcing that she would not support cloture, which would break a filibuster.
“The bill would provide a clear and unfair advantage to unions while either shutting other organizations out of the election process or subjecting them to onerous reporting requirements that would not apply to unions,” said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. “Sen. Collins believes that it is ironic that a bill aimed at curtailing special interests in the election process provides so many carve-outs and exemptions that favor some grass-roots organizations over others. This, too, is simply unfair.”
With her announcement Monday, Collins joins GOP moderates like Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who opposed the bill weeks ago, and Olympia Snowe of Maine, who told POLITICO, when it appeared Democrats would move on the bill, that she didn’t think it was likely to pass before the August recess.
Schumer, however, still expressed a cautious optimism earlier Monday, but it came off more as a move to dampen negative publicity than as an accurate snapshot of a whip count.
“We’re working very hard on getting a Republican. You never know until you call a vote,” Schumer said, noting that members might think twice about voting no on a bill that will have serious implications for the intersection of corporations and American politics when a final roll is called.
