THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 40 lines
The Democratic National Committee has announced unilateral campaign-finance reform. It's an obvious attempt to defuse criticism of dubious fund-raising practices by the Clinton re-election campaign and to turn the tables on the Republicans. The GOP should see these reforms and raise them - or rather lower them.
The Democrats propose to:
Refuse donations from non-U.S. citizens and the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations. In other words, Clinton could be the last Indonesian Candidate for President.
Check all donors giving more than $5,000 and those invited to the White House or vice presidential home - presumably to screen out those embarrassing felons.
Restrict donors to $100,000 in contributions per year.
That last requirement is laughable on its face. It would mean a donor could give only $800,000 in soft money during a president's two terms - an absurdly large amount of grease and more than enough to buy access, if not influence.
The GOP should accept these self-imposed strictures and introduce legislation that really addresses the problem by cleaning up the soft money morass and demanding full and timely disclosure of all contributions. Donations to the national parties are not supposed to benefit individual campaigns. But the present system is nothing more than a huge money-laundering operation used to circumvent spending limits for individuals. Such pass throughs should be ended; a ban on soft money would be even better.
Unfortunately, the GOP appears as unlikely to make really serious reform proposals as the Democrats. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey said the ``(Clinton) abuses don't require changing the law.''
Clearly, neither party wants to look as bad as the Clinton campaign in 1996. But neither wants to give up large contributions of soft money either. Look for more partisan charades but little real reform unless voters start turning up the heat.