Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's lack of support for the DISCLOSE Act signals just what kind of trouble the bill may be in. Rocky road for campaign finance

A sweeping overhaul of the campaign finance system seems destined to stall in the Senate – adding to tensions with House Democrats who have grown tired of taking politically risky votes only to see their proposals die on the Senate steps.

The DISCLOSE Act, crafted in response to a landmark Supreme Court case lifting corporate campaign contribution restrictions, could end up in the pile of dozens of bills — including a cap and trade proposal, domestic funding bills and a tax extenders package – that ended up in purgatory after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) forced vulnerable members to take politically risky votes.


“Another bill, another fight with the Senate,” said one exasperated House Democratic aide. “Most of the frustration is directed at Senate Republicans who have absolutely no desire to work to get anything done, so hunting for one or two Senate GOP votes is a painful fact of legislative life.”

What’s particularly galling to House Democrats is that the party is unified on the subject of campaign finance legislation, yet the Senate can’t seem to line up the votes. But the House bill now has exemptions for the National Rifle Association, labor unions and potentially other large special interest organizations, creating a major problem in the Senate.

Still, Majority Leader Harry Reid has made multiple guarantees — both in public and behind closed doors to top House officials — that he will bring the DISCLOSE Act to the floor before the August recess. Yet Reid keeps losing key moderates while he makes these promises.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) threw a major wrench at Reid's voting calculus with a statement slamming the legislation as not "honest" or "genuine." And late in the week, other key Republicans started to bail on Reid.

"I just can't see it happening this summer," Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) told POLITICO, before listing a series of bills left on the Senate docket, including a small business jobs package, the war supplemental spending bill and unemployment benefits.

Snowe, who has joined Democrats on major legislation such as Wall Street reform and temporary unemployment extensions, added that while she has begun to review the campaign finance language, changes would be required before she could support it.

"It's going to take some work,” Snowe said.

The legislation would require corporations, labor unions, trade associations and advocacy groups to publicly disclose financing of TV ads or mass mailings during the closing months of a political campaign. Foreign-controlled corporations and major government contractors would also be barred from paying for such political activities. Republicans – who back the Supreme Court’s decision – contend that the DISCLOSE Act is yet another crack down on free speech that wouldn’t hold up in court.

Even John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was the namesake for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that was partially overturned by the Supreme Court, is a strong opponent of the DISCLOSE Act.

McCain told POLITICO there isn't a single Republican senator who would support the legislation as it stands now, calling the bill "a bailout for the unions." McCain said the issue has been raised in several caucus meetings and he says fixing the campaign finance system is important, but he sees the Democratic version of the DISCLOSE Act as partisan.

"In the time remaining before this election it would be something we should address," McCain said. "But as long as the unions are calling the shots, there's going to be no agreement."

Democrats still may bring campaign finance legislation to the Senate floor, if only as a political bludgeon to portray Republicans as siding with the big corporate spending on political campaigns.

A House Democratic aide close to negotiations on the bill emphasized that House leaders are still pressuring Reid and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to push the campaign finance proposal to the Senate floor.

"If they want to support allowing powerful special interests to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase our democracy, then the American people should see that on TV and on C-SPAN," the aide said. "It is a tall order, and no one has ever believed that this would be easy. The campaign finance bill that John McCain offered took years to get passed, but that's not a reason not to call a vote and do it."

As for Brown's decision to ditch the bill, Democrats from both chambers strongly disagreed with the Massachusetts Republican's claim that the DISCLOSE Act "changes the rules in the middle of the game" to the advantage of Democrats and special interests.

Schumer contends that the aim of the bill is merely to provide "disclosure, which in the Supreme Court decision was specifically said to be constitutional." The New York Democrat added that the legislation does not discriminate between one group or another, even though there is a significant carve out now that would exempt the NRA and a few other major non profits.

But with Brown's firm rejection of the bill and Snowe’s hesitations, the bill that Democrats say is "vital" to pass could have to wait until September – or even a lame duck session for Senate floor time.

“Time and time again, the House has demonstrated it can get tough things done,” said one senior House Democratic aide. “I don’t envy the position Sen. Reid is in, dealing with a semi-dysfunctional body that has been hijacked by Washington Republicans, but he has to bring the DISCLOSE Act up for a vote.”

The delays in the Senate won’t make House Democrats happy, and campaign watchdog groups say the floodgates will soon open to undisclosed corporate, union and special interest money in elections.

"This issue is not going to fade away," said Craig Holman, legislative representative for Public Citizen, a non-profit advocacy group. "Even if all Republican senators march in lock-step with the party leadership, the public is overwhelmingly revulsed by the notion of secret money financing campaigns. If the Republicans oppose opening the books on money in politics today, the public will continue demanding transparency tomorrow."