Mike Levin: “I think we have never been closer to enacting comprehensive campaign finance reform than we are at this moment. The…”

“I think we have never been closer to enacting comprehensive campaign finance reform than we are at this moment. The majority of the Senate favors it. The House, through a very courageous act on the part of many of its Members, has overcome the opposition of the House leadership to pass Shays-Meehan. It was said earlier this year that there would be no way of passing Shays-Meehan against the will of the leadership of the House of Representatives. But a very stalwart, gutsy coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the House found a way to have the majority rule in the House of Representatives. It was not easy. It took incredible energy and willpower. They exercised it and they prevailed, and the majority prevailed over the wishes of the leaders of the House of Representatives. So, now we are in a situation where the majority of the Senate favors comprehensive reform and the House has passed comprehensive reform. The majority of the public clearly favors it. All public opinion polls show it. They are skeptical that we will do anything about it--the polls show that as well--but they favor it. Now we are going to come down, it seems to me, to a test of wills, a great and a historic test of wills in the U.S. Senate.”