Byron Dorgan: “I intend to vote for cloture today. I do not do so believing this is a perfect bill. There are some provisions in this…”

“I intend to vote for cloture today. I do not do so believing this is a perfect bill. There are some provisions in this measure I do not support. I do not support the complete abolition of PAC's, for example. But I believe we ought to be debating campaign finance reform. Therefore, I will vote for cloture to get a campaign finance reform bill on the floor of the Senate so we can offer amendments and see if we can perfect the bill in a way that will represent the public interest. In my judgment, the financing of political campaigns is spinning out of control--more and more dollars in each campaign, more and more wealthy candidates financing their own campaigns. Campaigns in America have not so much become a competition of ideas--this is what campaigns ought to be--but a 30-second ad war. Not so much by candidates, but by the creators of the 30-second little ``bomb bursts'' that are put on television to try and destroy other reputations. These hired guns hardly serve the public interest, yet campaigns really have become a competition of 30-second ads. When I last ran for the U.S. Senate, I was much better known than my opponent, so I made a novel proposal, which he did not accept, unfortunately. I wish he would have. I said: I am better known than you, but if we can agree to certain things, I think in many respects it will even things up. Let neither of us do any advertising at all.…”