Senate Advances Campaign Finance Amendment

Ethan Miller/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — A major debate over campaign finance reform came to the Senate Monday as Democrats pushed a constitutional amendment to effectively overturn the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on campaign finance.

The constitutional amendment, which was introduced by Sen. Tom Udall, would grant Congress and the states the authority to regulate and limit political donations and spending in federal campaigns.

“Our campaign finance system is being destroyed by misguided Supreme Court decisions, one after another,” Udall, D-N.M., said Monday. “Basically the Supreme Court placed a ‘For Sale’ signs on elections.”

The Senate cleared its first procedural hurdle on the constitutional amendment with a vote of 79-18 Monday evening, but there is little to no chance the bill will actually pass the Senate or even be considered by the Republican-controlled House. The amendment would require two-thirds of votes in the House and Senate to be enacted, and Republicans strongly oppose the measure.

Democrats are using the amendment as an attempt to curb the political influence wielded by super PACs funded by deep-pocketed donors, such as the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

“We have had in this country a flood of very, very dark money coming into this nation’s political system which is threatening to tear apart the fabric of American democracy,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday.

Reid, D-Nev., said the Koch brothers are trying to “fix every election in America to their liking” by pouring millions into Senate races this year.

But it’s not just Republicans who are benefitting from well-financed groups. On the Democratic side, liberal billionaire Tom Steyer is directing millions of dollars into the NextGen Climate super PAC with an eye on promoting Democratic candidates espousing his views on environmental issues.

Republicans said the constitutional amendment impedes on free speech rights, and disparaged Democrats for spending legislative time on the issue.

“Their goal is to shut down the voices of their critics at a moment when they fear the loss of their fragile Senate majority. And to achieve it, they’re willing to devote roughly half of the remaining legislative days before November to this quixotic anti-speech gambit,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote in a Politico op-ed.

In the end, Republicans will likely stop the amendment from being passed, but the exercise may take away valuable time from legislative business in the final two weeks the Senate is in session before the November election.

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