Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 today ran up the white flag on getting the DISCLOSE Act passed in time to affect the 2010 elections. In a post chastising Maine’s two Republican Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, for not standing with the so-called campaign finance “reform” community in ramming through the DISCLOSE Act, Wertheimer notes the following:
Prior to the vote last week, Senators Snowe and Collins raised a major concern about enacting a new campaign finance law that would take effect so close to the 2010 congressional races. That concern is no longer an obstacle to reaching an agreement on the DISCLOSE Act because as a practical matter it is not possible for the DISCLOSE Act to take effect for the 2010 elections, even if it is passed by the Senate in September.
Despite the fact that disrupting the 2010 elections with the DISCLOSE Act is no longer an option, Wertheimer is still insistent that Congress pass something as soon as possible.
Supporters of the DISCLOSE Act in the Senate have said the legislation will be brought up again in September and have made clear that they are open to negotiating changes in the bill with Senators Snowe and Collins to address the concerns they may have…
“Democracy 21 very much hopes that Senators Snowe and Collins will exercise the same kind of important leadership and independence they have exercised in the past on campaign finance reform legislation, and will work with Senate supporters of the DISCLOSE Act to reach an agreement on legislation that can be enacted in September,” Wertheimer said.
But why the rush?
After all, if the campaign finance “reformers” are conceding that they can’t suppress political speech in time for the 2010 election, why not wait until after the 2010 election to try to push through their bill?
By that time, if the “reformers” are correct, the damage done by unregulated political speech should be broadly evident, and Senators Snowe, Collins, and perhaps others should be eager to jump on board the DISCLOSE bandwagon in order to make sure 2012 is not similarly marred by the free exercise of the First Amendment.
The fact that Wertheimer is still advocating that Congress rush the DISCLOSE Act into law before we’ve even seen the true impact of the Citizens United and SpeechNow.org rulings, and despite the fact that the DISCLOSE Act couldn’t stop that impact for the 2010 election, suggests two possible things may be going on here:
1. Wertheimer and the rest of the campaign finance “reform” community are not quite as certain as they pretend in public that the American public is going to be all that bothered by ads run by corporations, unions, and advocacy groups, and they also recognize that the claimed imminent flood of anonymous funding is unlikely to occur. Hard to sell a solution to a problem that everyone saw not happen!
2. The “reformers” have signed on to Chuck Schumer’s strategy of calling the DISCLOSE Act up for several more votes in an effort to give Democrats a talking point on the campaign trail this fall.
Neither of these explanations seem a good reason for Senators Snowe and Collins, or any other Senator for that matter, to skip the committee process and rush the DISCLOSE Act through in September before anybody has seen what our elections look like post-Citizens United and post-SpeechNow.org.
Whatever one’s thoughts on the DISCLOSE Act, now that it is clear it will not be enacted before this year’s elections it should be obvious that there is no reason at all to try to jam this bill through before we see what if any “problems” need to be fixed.
