The summer of reform: campaign finance laws return to the congressional agenda.

• Author: Lynch, Michael W.

Campaign finance reform is back. Declared dead in the Senate after its supporters failed to overcome a filibuster in late February, the issue was thought to have suffered a similar fate in the House when a March reform bill failed to pass.

But the rank and file rebelled against the House leadership, and the issue is back on the agenda. Chastened by its own members for restricting debate on earlier proposals, the House leadership lurched to the other extreme and opened the door to a debate that may last all summer.

Congress began debate with a freshman-backed bill. Eleven substitute amendments to completely replace this bill were cleared for debate, and roughly 600 amendments to these amendments were to follow suit. While there are many ideas in circulation, the one preferred by reform enthusiasts is embodied in bills sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin Meehan (D-Mass.). These bills would severely restrict the ability of political parties to raise and spend "soft" money, which is not subject to federal contribution limits. National political parties use soft money for "party building" efforts, such as public opinion polling and voter registration drives. Soft money is also frequently transferred to state parties and advocacy groups, which spend it on state and local elections.

In addition, these proposals seek to regulate independent issue advocacy ads, which, under the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, fall entirely outside the purview of federal regulation as long as they avoid such magic words as "vote for" or "vote against" a candidate. (See "Gagging on Political Reform," October 1996.) The proposals would empower bureaucrats to decide if ads are intended to influence electoral outcomes.

For their part, Republicans are still pushing "paycheck protection," which would force unions to get annual permission from their members to use any dues money for political activity. A June initiative to bring paycheck protection to California failed by a 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent margin and led to a large union turnout. (According to exit polls, however, a third of union-member voters cast their ballots for the measure.)

Before federal legislators embrace any of these proposals, they ought to see how some of their most cherished ideas are playing out in the states.

As documented in a Wall Street Journal editorial last August 5 and a month later by...