Campaign Reform Weekly Columns

7/25/2004

Election Moving On July 8, the Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge publicly warned that the government has �credible� information that Al Qaeda is planning an assault intentionally timed to "disrupt our democratic process." Such an attack would be a reprise of the assault in Spain earlier this year, which some credit with altering the outcome of the election there and leading to the withdrawal of Spanish forces from the coalition in Iraq. This has led some to consider how we would react to a massive terrorist attack on or immediately before Election Day that seriously disrupted voting in one or more cities or states.

02/24/2002

Reducing Special Interest Politics In the wee hours of February 14, the House passed H.R. 2356 (also known as Shays/Meehan) to reform our campaign finance laws. It is now expected to go to the Senate and then to the President who has indicated that he will sign it into law. I voted for it because politicians have found ways to get around the old 1974 laws that were designed to limit the influence of special interests. There are times when members hesitate to follow through on their best judgment because they give the benefit of the doubt to big donors. Because of this, I've refused to accept special interest PAC (political action committee) contributions and have introduced four of my own campaign finance reform bills.

01/27/2002

Money and Politics Since the Senate passed its version of campaign finance reform last year, there has been a push to have it considered in the House of Representatives. Thanks to the success of a discharge petition on January 24, a vote will now probably be scheduled in February. This greatly increases the chances for the enactment of some sort of campaign finance reform legislation this year, which would likely take effect starting with the 2004 election cycle.

07/08/2001

Cleansing Our Republic At the conclusion of the constitutional convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a Mrs. Powel what kind of government they had founded. He responded, "A republic, if you can keep it." With this, Franklin emphasized the need to maintain and occasionally renew our democratic institutions to protect our freedom. As we take up campaign finance reform in Congress, we engage in one of these necessary renewals.

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