
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994                   TAG: 9410030068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CAMPAIGN REFORM GOES DOWN TO BITTER DEFEAT IN SENATE

The Senate on Friday killed legislation to overhaul Congress's widely criticized campaign finance laws in another major defeat for President Clinton's reform agenda and a big blow to the 103rd Congress' already slim record of achievement.

The bill died when moderates of both parties bailed out on a last-ditch effort to break a Republican-led filibuster against sending the measure - which had passed both the House and the Senate - to a conference committee to iron out differences. The effort failed 52-46, or eight votes short of the 60 needed to end the delaying tactics.

The decade-long drive to pass the bill succumbed to a lethal combination of forces, including strong Republican opposition; debilitating divisions between House and Senate Democrats; and the lack of a high-profile, sustained push from the White House, strategists said.

After the vote, Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, pulled the bill from the Senate calendar with a scathing attack on the bill's foes, accusing them of contributing to public cynicism by blocking reform and then seeking to profit politically from the results.

``The very people who want to keep the system that has brought Congress into such disrepute are trying to benefit from that disrepute - to tear down the institution so [they] can inherit the rubble,'' he said.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who led the Republican attack on the bill, was equally blistering in his criticism of the legislation, which he characterized as unconstitutional, partisan and pro-incumbent.

The bill would have set voluntary spending limits, provided incentives for compliance and put new limits on contributions by political action committees, large donors and other special interests. A voluntary income tax checkoff and increased fees on lobbyists, PACs and other specific groups would finance one-third of allowed spending for House candidates and standby assistance to Senate candidates whose opponents exceed spending limits.

The only major ``reform'' bills still pending in Congress are House-passed measures to strengthen lobbying laws and to force Congress to live by the same worker protection laws it imposes on others. Both are scheduled for action in the Senate before Congress adjourns, probably late next week.

Defeat of the campaign finance bill came only two days after House and Senate Democratic leaders ended a months-long stalemate over curbing special interest contributions - a delay that virtually sealed the bill's fate by exposing it to highly charged end-of-the-session political pressures.

At the heart of the compromise was a $6,000 limit on how much a PAC can give to a candidate in an election cycle. The Senate had wanted to ban PAC donations, while the House wanted to keep the current $10,000 limit.

by CNB