THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996                 TAG: 9606130021
SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J4   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

VOTERS SHOULD DEMAND CAMPAIGN-FINANCE REFORM MONEY SHOULDN'T RULE

A year ago Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton entered into a televised handshake agreement to seek campaign-finance reform. The idea was to appoint a bipartisan panel on the model of the base-closing commission to remove politics from this most political of issues. It never happened.

Now it's an election year and campaign-finance reform is probably dead. But reform is badly needed. Campaigns are awash in PAC money, and those who claim that big contributions from special interests don't influence legislation are unpersuasive.

A few admirable legislators are trying to keep real reform alive. Others want to kill it without appearing to do so. The best hope for reform is a bill sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. It's a model of bipartisan common sense.

The bill would establish voluntary limits on contributions to a candidate since the courts have ruled against mandatory caps. Candidates who abide by limits would be rewarded with benefits, including reduced-cost TV time. There would be far-more-stringent restrictions on PAC money and an outright ban on so-called soft money that skirts existing rules and distorts elections.

A Republican filibuster killed campaign-finance reform in the past Congress. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is expected to try to scuttle this even-better version using the same tactic.

In the House, Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, will bring campaign-finance reform to a vote during a ``Reform Week'' scheduled to begin July 8. But a toothless version of reform rather than the preferable bipartisan bill may be substituted.

Common Cause, the good government-lobbying group, has long advocated reform, and it points out that threat of curbs on the legalized bribes that go under the name of campaign contributions is creating strange bedfellows in Washington.

PACS for labor and business that usually fight each other tooth and nail on legislation have teamed up to defeat campaign-finance reform. They know their influence will diminish if their ability to slip cash to public servants is curtailed.

Virginians who are sick of government of the highest bidder, by the highest bidder and for the highest bidder should contact their member of Congress and Sens. Chuck Robb and John Warner to insist that they support S. 1219 and H.R. 2566.

KEYWORDS: CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS by CNB