Campaign Finance Reform

ATTORNEY General Janet Reno last week closed the door on possible independent counsel inquiries into the financing of the 1996 presidential campaign.She did so by declining to approve an independent counsel investigation of White House chief of staff Harold Ickes for special favors he allegedly traded the Teamsters for campaign funds. The decision comes weeks after Ms. Reno similarly refused to recommend an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton's 1996 fund-raising activities.

WASHINGTON -- In President Clinton's latest vow to fight for )) campaign-finance reform this year, he warned that if Republican opponents try to block it by filibuster as they have done in past years, ''we intend to see that it happens in the full glare of public light.''There's no doubt he will live up to his word, because nothing would better serve his political purposes at a time when he, Vice President Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee all are under fire for their eye-popping fund-raising excesses in the 1996 election cycle.

Efforts to reduce the influence of big-money special interests in state elections suffered a setback late last week with the decision of a federal judge to throw out Connecticut's landmark campaign finance law on the grounds it put third-party candidates at a disadvantage. The ruling has significant implications for Maryland, where legislators have been seriously considering a similar approach to publicly financed state-level political campaigns for the past five years. The proposal has won support in the House of Delegates and has gotten as far as the floor of the Maryland Senate - until a procedural move late in this year's legislative session forced it back into committee.

BIPARTISANSHIP HAS scored a victory inside -- if not outside -- the halls of Congress with the latest round of endorsements of campaign finance reform. Former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush are all urging enactment of a ban on so-called "soft money," the uncontrolled contributions to the national political parties and their campaign committees that are now perfectly legal. "A significant bi-partisan effort . . . . can achieve legislative consensus in campaign reforms that will help to restore the confidence of our citizens in their federal government."

THE LATE, LATE SHOW Wednesday night didn't draw an Olympic-size audience, but it wasn't for lack of drama. We're talking about the one on C-SPAN, starring the U.S. House of Representatives and featuring the debate and vote on the Shays-Meehan bill, which sharply limits so-called "soft money" contributions to political parties. The show had everything: tension, mystery, histrionics, a big-star cameo appearance (Charlton Heston phoned in on behalf of the National Rifle Association) and - best of all - a happy ending.

PHILADELPHIA - Campaign finance reform, the issue that commanded much attention in this year's Republican presidential primaries, is a non-issue at this week's Republican National Convention. Arizona Sen. John McCain, its champion in the primaries, is a muted voice on the issue here, focusing instead on rallying his supporters to the cause of the man who beat him, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas. But the money McCain sought to put a lid on is very much in evidence in the $65 million show the Grand Old Party is putting on. Of that figure, $13.4 million comes from the subsidy that federal law allocates to each of the two major-party conventions.

WASHINGTON -- Two political parties that together took in roughly a billion dollars in contributions during the last campaign. A presidential campaign, desperate to raise money, accused of selling White House access to foreign interests. A voting public that feels increasingly disenfranchised by a system that caters to big-money donors."This is not an appearance problem; this is a reality problem," said Ellen S. Miller, head of Public Campaign, a new campaign finance reform advocacy group.

WHATEVER HIS MOTIVE, President Clinton's threat to keep the Senate in session until it debates and votes on a bill to curb abusive campaign financing practices seems to have had its desired effect. The way is now clear for action on a watered-down reform measure.That is a remarkably positive advance for a proposal that had been shelved by Majority Leader Trent Lott. Still, resistance remains stiff, especially from the Republicans' champion of unlimited party fund-raising, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

IN THE 2000 CAMPAIGN'S closing weeks, Democrats unleashed a powerful weapon that had been in short supply. With the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raking in a record $50 million in "soft money" in the 1999-2000 election cycle, the DSCC sponsored a barrage of issues ads that benefited Democratic challengers in such states as Delaware, Michigan, and Washington. The hard-hitting ads were instrumental in helping to create the 50-50 Senate split. But the Democrats' astonishing soft-money haul, more than 5 1/2 times what the DSCC raised in 1995-1996, may have some ironic and unintended consequences.