Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993 TAG: 9302140302
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
OVERHAUL URGED IN BUYING VOTES
Federal candidates and parties collect more than $2.5 million a week from political action committees, business and labor lobbyists and cliques of $100,000 donors trying to buy access to Congress and the White House.Though Bill Clinton mastered that system, he also blamed it for "the cynicism that is gripping the American people" about their government.
Last year, Democrats pushed new campaign finance rules through Congress. As they expected, the Republican president, George Bush, took them off the hook by vetoing the bill.
Now a Democrat is president, and for the first time since 1974, the White House and Congress appear ready to agree on a new law to control political money raising.
President Clinton told Mike Waldman, a presidential assistant who used to head Ralph Nader's Congress Watch, to work out details with Congress.
Essentially, the law would limit spending and special-interest money in congressional races in exchange for partial public financing. In presidential campaigns, it would restrict the flow of giant gifts through party committees.
The law also might make it harder for lobbyists to avoid disclosing their attempts to influence Congress.
Watch out for loopholes, warned Chuck Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan watchdog group.
"It's going to take more than a few changes in the laws and the rules to change the mercenary culture of Washington," Lewis said. Upset that Clinton hired lawyer-lobbyists for key jobs, Lewis said, "If you're really worried about influence peddling, you don't bring influence peddlers into the government with you."
- Cox News Service