Gop Raises More Money, But Demos On Defensive
Democrats look like they have the worst of all political worlds when it comes to campaign finance reform.
For starters, the Republicans outraised them by a wide margin for the campaign that ended in November, an advantage of more than $100 million, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission figures.
At the same time the Democrats were being outspent, they became identified with the most heavily publicized examples of apparent abuse.
As President Clinton delicately put it last week: “Mistakes were made.”
The list of Democratic controversies seems to lengthen by the day: possibly illegal donations from foreign citizens; Vice President Al Gore’s attendance at a fund-raising event at a Buddhist temple; most symbolically, turning the White House into a sort of political come-on for prospective big donors, a few with questionable backgrounds.
To compound Democratic woes, Republicans used their financial advantage to renew their majorities in the House and Senate last fall, and now are poised to script congressional hearings to their own political advantage.
No wonder campaign finance reform is at the top of the Democratic agenda for the current year and doesn’t figure prominently in the plans of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
“They seek to investigate the past, not safeguard the future,” House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt charged recently.
Republican Sen. Fred Thompson - possessor of Gore’s old Senate seat - will chair the investigative effort in the Senate. He wants to hire a staff of 80 for a probe and hearings. His proposed budget runs to $6.4 million.
Democrats on the panel voted against the spending plan in committee meetings, and have threatened a filibuster on the Senate floor. Minority Leader Tom Daschle issued a fact sheet that said Thompson was asking for “more than the entire Senate budgets for Whitewater and Iran-Contra combined.”
Trying to turn the spotlight onto Republican practices, Daschle had this other advice for Thompson:
“Follow the half a billion dollars the Republicans raised in the last election cycle - twice as much as Democrats raised. … Follow the money when it comes to inviting people into the committee rooms to write legislation.”
Thompson, who served as a senior staff aide for the Watergate Committee two decades ago, has pledged a fair, bipartisan investigation.
In remarks on the Senate floor this week, though, he said he won’t tolerate it if the White House engages in a “grudging release of information in dribs and drabs. … We understand the nature of that game and we will not play it.” In addition to trying to shelter themselves and the White House from harm, Democratic leaders are promoting fundamental reform of the political fund-raising system.
Lott delivered his answer in advance.
Before talking about new legislation, he told reporters, “why don’t we follow the laws on the books.”
To the discomfort of Democrats, that’s what Republicans intend to concentrate on for a while.