Campaign finance watchers continue to pore over the scattered signals emanating from anonymous congressional leadership aides as the legislative drafting process of Van Hollen-Schumer continues behind closed doors.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Sen. Charles Schumer, the chair and former chair of their respective chambers’ campaign committees, announced their framework for a Citizens United response in February—Feb. 11 to be specific.
Over two months later, the world hasn’t ended, corporations have not announced a cabal to buy elections and Obama administration ethics counsel Norm Eisen—the White House’s man-about-town pushing the legislation—is reportedly decamping for the Czech Republic.
Politico is reporting that the wait may soon be over and that long-awaited draft language might soon emerge from the legislative fine-tuning: “Citizens United answer almost ready”
Van Hollen, who usually attempts a bipartisan tone on this campaign finance push, nonetheless suggested that Republicans were not supporting further campaign finance restrictions because they’d benefit more from “special interest corporate money” in the mid-term elections.
Some of those provisions may run afoul of the court’s broad interpretation of free speech rights in the Citizens United case, said Jeff Patch, spokesman for the Center for Competitive Politics, which supported Citizens United in the case.
“Ultimately, what the Court said in Citizens United was that [corporate and union ads] weren’t corrupting, so we see the whole effort as sort of a solution in search of a problem,” said Patch.
He added that any effort to tweak the spending rules could cause confusion for regulators, candidates and groups seeking to take advantage of the new flexibility since “2010 is already underway, and the rules of the game have already been established.”
Roll Call reported this morning that Congressional leaders are searching for a Republican to join the effort in the Senate.
The new deadline, according to Roll Call, is “[b]y early next week.”
Brad Smith, a former Republican FEC chairman, said the bill is doomed sans McCain.
“It’s damaging to the bill’s prospects,” Smith said. “I believe that Sen. McCain believes in this issue sincerely, but he’s not an idiot. … This truly is not bipartisan legislation. It’s a partisan effort to silence political opponents.”
Photos of CCP’s event last week to dicuss the state of campaign finance law after Citizens United are below:
 |
Eric Brown of Political Activity Law also has posted a slideshow of the event.
BNA’s report ($) on the event highlighted the drafting delays of Schumer-Van Hollen:
Veteran campaign reform advocate Meredith McGehee of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said April 8 that she was “concerned that it’s taking so long” for formal introduction of a new campaign finance bill expected to be sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md.).
…
McGehee spoke during an April 8 panel discussion on Capitol Hill sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Competitive Politics, which generally opposes campaign regulation.
National Journal’s Under the Influence blog also cited the panel’s consensus that the delays do not bode well for brisk, bipartisan action:
Legislation by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., designed to circumvent the Citizens United ruling faces a number of hurdles and is unlikely to pass before the midterm elections, according to a panel hosted by the Center for Competitive Politics on Thursday. CCP is a 501(c)3 organization that opposes campaign finance laws.