Russ Feingold: “It was just about 1 year ago, Mr. President, last June, when I stood here on the Senate floor with the senior Senator…”

“It was just about 1 year ago, Mr. President, last June, when I stood here on the Senate floor with the senior Senator from Arizona, Senator McCain, and others, and participated in a somewhat abbreviated debate on the need for meaningful, bipartisan campaign reform. We discussed several issues during that debate, Mr. President. We talked about the 1994 elections and the resulting record amount of campaign spending in that election. We had a chance to talk briefly about how one candidate for the U.S. Senate had spent $30 million of his own money to try and win a California Senate seat. We talked about how the average amount of money spent by a winning 1994 Senate candidate had, unfortunately, reached over $4.6 million. We talked about the damaging effect that the unabated flow of campaign cash had on our political system as well as on the public perceptions of this institution. In response to all of that, interestingly, we were told by opponents of reform that all was well, that spiraling campaign spending would somehow strengthen our democracy, and that our system was far from crying out for reform. And then, on a quiet Tuesday afternoon, after a few paltry hours of debate and absolutely no opportunity for Senators to offer amendments, the bipartisan McCain-Feingold reform bill fell six votes short of breaking a filibuster, and that was done effectively by the guardians of the status quo. That was a year ago, Mr. President.”