Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, we enact campaign finance reform once in a generation. The last time we enacted meaningful, comprehensive campaign finance reform was in the post-Watergate era. For a while that system worked pretty well. But over a period of the last 20 to 25 years, loopholes have developed in the law, loopholes being that incredible amounts of soft money, over and above the legal limits, are being spent to influence elections in our country. An incredible amount, millions of dollars in sham issue ads are being spent to influence elections in our country. So we now have a unique opportunity to pass comprehensive campaign finance reform. We have to make sure that when we pass this bill, we do not pass a bill that already has loopholes in it. The Hutchinson amendment fails to close the soft money loophole because it enables the insurance companies and the tobacco companies and all of these special interests to circumvent the Federal parties and influence Federal campaigns by going to the States. Many of these States do not even have disclosure requirements of this money. It is too big of a loophole. It does not do anything about reining in sham issue ads. It is too big of a loophole. We have to deal with both of these problems. That is why we have to pass this bill. Finally, a majority of the Members of the Senate have supported this legislation.”