THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511100026
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Virginia has just been through a political campaign in which large campaign contributions became an issue. In Washington, campaign-finance reform is a subject that won't go away.
Part of Ross Perot's appeal in 1992 had to do with his criticism of the influence of big money on politics. He ran against an entrenched political class he claimed was doing the bidding of fat-cat contributors.
The billionaire Perot was a flawed messenger since he had a long history of making big contributions and receiving big favors. But the message resonated. Voters overwhelmingly favor term limits, campaign finance and lobbying reform as checks on power.
Yet it is here that the Republicans' revolution has glaringly failed to act. Term limits is conspicuously absent from the list of Contract With America success stories. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has shelved it for the foreseeable future. And once the Republicans won the Congress last November, the new House Majority Leader Dick Armey said term limits were no longer needed.
As to campaign-finance reform, Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Clinton engaged in a famous handshake agreement months ago to get on with it. The public finds a system that permits legal bribes and is awash in tens of millions in soft money repellent. Yet nothing has happened because incumbents of each party like things the way they are.
The latest nondevelopment came last week when Gingrich proposed the standard delaying tactic, a bipartisan commission to study reform until next summer. Since any report would arrive in the middle of a presidential election, no legislative action would be likely to take place until a new Congress and possibly a new president were in place, in 1997.
Is study really needed? Without elaborate study, Republicans have had no trouble figuring out what to do about welfare, Medicare, a balanced budget and a host of other complex issues. Besides, campaign-finance and lobbying reform have been studied to death.
There's little question that limits on campaign contributions are needed and the gigantic loophole allowing soft money must be closed. It's also reasonable to insist on limits for outside earned income for public officials. Public service is supposed to be an opportunity to serve the country not to enrich oneself.
It's not study that's needed but the will to act. Each party resists change for fear it will help the other. But the populist anger that gave 19 percent of the vote to Perot, ousted a sitting president in 1992 and elected a Republican Congress in 1994 hasn't abated.
There's a pervasive suspicion of politicians and the money they raise. Many voters believe that in Washington - and Richmond - the fix is in, against them. They won't be satisfied until campaign finance is cleaned up. Incumbents obviously don't want to change a system that favors them, but politicians of both parties ignore this issue at their peril. by CNB