Washington — In a slap at Republican leaders, supporters of campaign finance legislation won their fight Thursday to force a House vote on a bill to curb the influence of big money in politics.
"Campaign finance reform will finally get a fair vote," said Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who has long defied his own party's leaders on campaign finance legislation.
Democrats rejoiced, too, having put up the vast majority of the 218 signatures needed on a petition to force the bill to the floor. "As the Enron storm clouds roll in, the public's tolerance for this soft-money system is growing increasingly thin," said Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass. Enron, a bankrupt Texas energy trading firm, donated millions to candidates and to both political parties.
No date was set for a debate on the bill, which would impose the most far-reaching changes in the nation's political finance system since the Watergate overhaul of a quarter-century ago.
"We want to deal with the issue as expeditiously as possible and provide a fair forum for it to be considered on the House floor," said Terry Holt, a spokesman for Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas. Some Republican officials said they expected a vote as early as February or March.
House supporters have tried for months to force the bill onto the floor through a legislative petition that requires signatures of a majority of all House members, 218. Such petitions rarely succeed, largely because lawmakers of the majority party are reluctant to support initiatives that essentially usurp their leaders' right to set the legislative agenda.
As the House opened for business Thursday, the petition at the clerk's desk inside the chamber contained 214 names, four short of the 218 required. Two Republicans, Reps. Charles Bass of New Hampshire and Tom Petri of Wisconsin, signed to push the total to 216 and trigger a bit of political theater by the Democrats.
Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., the party leader, who had lobbied his colleagues vigorously for months to sign the petition, interrupted a rehearsal for an economic speech he was to deliver during the day to meet Reps. Richard Neal and Corrine Brown just off the House floor.
Neal, D-Mass., long had promised he could be counted on as the 218th name, and Brown, a Floridian, had more recently indicated she, too, was prepared to sign.
"Let's do it," Gephardt said with a broad smile, and escorted them into the chamber.
"The American people deserve a full debate about how campaigns are financed," Neal told reporters.
The legislation would constitute a virtual ban on soft money, typically five- and six-figure donations that unions, corporations and individuals make to political parties. Most of the money is spent on critical television commercials that stop just short of explicitly advocating a candidate's election or defeat. The measure also would ban certain types of political advertising in the last 60 days of a campaign.
Opponents claim a ban on soft money would be unconstitutional because it would infringe on First Amendment rights of free speech.
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