Norvell Emerson: “In November of 2000, on the night of my reelection, I told my constituents that I firmly supported meaningful campaign…”

“In November of 2000, on the night of my reelection, I told my constituents that I firmly supported meaningful campaign finance reform. That position has not changed and it will not change. I know how hard the sponsors of this bill have worked, and I want to commend them for it; but if our goal is to reduce the influence of soft money, this bill does not go far enough. This bill is not true campaign finance reform. This bill is campaign finance hide and seek. The fact of the matter is soft money will seek a place to hide, and there is a place to hide in this bill, dark enough and big enough to provide cover for mountains of soft money. This bill provides that cover for obscene amounts of money without Federal disclosure, without Federal reporting and in total darkness. This is hide and seek at its best or its worst. In my home State of Missouri, it means for example that 10 corporations and 10 unions could give over $10 million of soft money to each party each year. If creating that loophole were not bad enough, Shays-Meehan creates an even bigger loophole by allowing Members of Congress, us, to raise unlimited soft money from 501(c) tax-exempt organizations. That is an outrage and even Senator McCain did not support that loophole.”