Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994 TAG: 9403050028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
In a voice vote, the House doomed a campaign finance reform bill to a committee that is not scheduled to meet again before the General Assembly leaves town March 12.
A similar measure is still alive, but its sponsor said the House vote may indicate that campaign finance reform is dead this year.
"If the House doesn't want to discipline itself, I can't force it on them," said Del. Glenn Croshaw, a Virginia Beach Democrat. "We can regulate almost anything in the world, except when it comes to ourselves."
The reform proposal would - for the first time in Virginia - limit contributions that candidates can receive from any single individual, corporation or political action committee.
Critics of the system thought the measure had a good chance of success this year, if only because it was riddled with loopholes that would give candidates any number of ways to evade the limits.
The House approved Croshaw's bill a few weeks ago, but delegates on Friday feasted on a similar bill sponsored by Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County.
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, a lawyer-legislator from Roanoke, said the bill was too complicated for him to comprehend.
"You are not going to know a hawk from a handsaw if you put this in place," Woodrum said.
After the House dispatched the Gartlan bill, Croshaw sought to explain why the delegates had changed their minds. "The closer they got to facing up to the reality of it, they had second thoughts," he said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994 POLITICS
by CNB