Senate Passes Campaign Finance Amendment Restricting Independent Ads
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Anyone interested in campaign finance reform may want to pay close attention to what happens on Capitol Hill today because Senators will answer a hard question about soft money, as they consider an alternative to the McCain-Feingold bill. However, a bill passed last night may be of more concern to the McCain camp. CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl explains this one.</s>JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a flurry of last-minute vote changes, senator Russ Feingold and John McCain suffered their first significant defeat. At issue was an amendment to restrict the right of independent groups to run political ads 60 days before an election. The measure is widely considered unconstitutional; it passed anyway.</s>SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: This amendment raises the very distinct prospect, which I believe all of us fear, that the entire effort will fall if the United States Supreme Court finds one defect.</s>KARL: A senior adviser to Senator McCain accused Democrats of colluding with Republican opponents of reform to make McCain-Feingold harder to pass by tacking on such a controversial amendment. But the Democratic sponsor of the amendment said he was just trying to improve the bill.</s>SEN. PAUL WELLSTONE (D), MINNESOTA: I do not believe that an effort to improve this bill is an effort to kill this bill.</s>KARL: The next major challenge for McCain-Feingold comes as the Senate votes on proposals to increase the limit on so-called hard money donations given directly to candidates. It was in reaction to the Watergate scandal that Congress set the current limit of $1,000 for a primary and $1,000 for a general election in 1974. If that $1,000 limit had kept pace with inflation, it would currently stand at $3,565.92, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, and the rise in the cost of campaigns has dramatically outpaced inflation. The average cost of a Senate campaign in 1974 was $423,000. Last year, it was more than 13 times that, at $5.6 million. While McCain doesn't mind increasing the limit, many longtime supporters of McCain-Feingold do.</s>WELLSTONE: Needless to say this is a mistake. To have more big money dominate American politics is not reform.</s>KARL (on camera): And in another significant test for campaign finance reform, the Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday to an alternative to McCain-Feingold proposed by Senator Chuck Hagel. Rather than banning the unlimited contributions given to political parties known as soft money, Senator Hagel would limit such donations to $60,000 a year. Jonathan Karl, CNN, Capitol Hill.