Campaign Finance Bill Seen Gaining in Senate

With the loss of Krueger and Shelby, Democrats would be down to 55 votes, five short of the 60 needed to end delaying tactics by imposing cloture. Thus the importance of this new "Gang of 5": Chafee, McCain, Jeffords, William S. Cohen (Maine) and Dave Durenberger (Minn.).

The campaign finance bill before the Senate closely resembles earlier Democratic drafts, with modifications by Clinton, including new constraints on contributions from lobbyists.

The bill would set voluntary spending limits, with incentives, including federally financed "communications vouchers" for purchase of advertising and postage, to encourage candidates to comply. It also would seek in a variety of ways to curtail the influence of special interests in campaigns, including a ban (in the Senate bill) or restrictions (in the House bill) on contributions to federal candidates from political action committees (PACs), which corporations, unions and other groups set up to channel money to favored candidates.

With spending ceilings as the centerpiece of the Democratic bill and Republican leaders ruling out any ceilings, efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise have failed. The five mavericks are less rigidly opposed to spending limits but have other complaints about the legislation, which they outlined in a nine-point letter to Democratic leaders earlier this month.

In what amounts to a two-track strategy, Sen. David L. Boren (D-Okla.), the bill's chief sponsor, has been addressing some of the complaints by acceding to amendments on the Senate floor while meeting privately with the Republicans and Senate Democratic leaders to resolve some of the bigger issues.

To overcome objections that the House was insisting on looser rules, the senators reached early agreement to ban PAC contributions in House as well as Senate races, with a $1,000 limit as a fallback position for both houses in case the ban is ruled unconstitutional. House Democrats, who are insisting on retaining the current $5,000 limit on PAC contributions along with new restrictions to limit aggregate PAC contributions to one-third of a candidate's spending ceiling, are seething at the Senate's action.