Campaign Reform

Rep. Gilchrest, others should push for vote on campaign reformI am disappointed that Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest still hasn't signed the discharge petition that seeks to bring about a fair and early vote on the bipartisan Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill. With 202 signers, the petition is now only 16 short of the 218 supporters it needs.Although Mr. Gilchrest co-sponsored the bill, he has yet to take the critical step of signing the discharge petition.House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Tom DeLay apparently remain determined to delay action on campaign finance reform.

WASHINGTON -- Former Tennessee Sen. William E. Brock III outspent his major rivals in Maryland's U.S. Senate race by better than a 2-1 margin during the second quarter of the year, investing $463,000 in a campaign that polls indicate has yet to capture the voters' attention.Overall, the 63-year-old Republican spent $823,660 on his campaign to unseat Democrat Paul S. Sarbanes during the first half of this year, according to a campaign finance report released yesterday. Much of that money was his own: The millionaire candy heir reported lending $390,000 to his election effort.

WASHINGTON -- There's a simple explanation, says Sen. Fred Thompson, for why Congress isn't likely to rein in the nation's out-of-control campaign finance system."

AS ELECTION DAY recedes into history, the fund-raising frenzy has been tallied, and the situation is bleak. Not just because the average U.S. senator spent over $5.5 million to win election, or because the two major presidential candidates spent over $300 million in hard money, or because the amount spent in the 2000 elections is up more than a third from 1996, or that the moneyed interests that invested in their candidates are set to receive the requisite...

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's re-election campaign is saying no to requests for an electronic copy of his campaign finance report due this week. Ellen R. Sauerbrey, his likely Republican challenger, is saying yes.Robin O. Oegerle, the governor's campaign treasurer, cited technological obstacles and the fact that candidates are not legally required to provide copies of the reports on computer discs.She said that when the State Administrative Board of Elections adopts a standard format for electronic delivery of the annual finance reports, "We'll be one of the first to convert."

LOS ANGELES -- The ballot-initiative process, whereby California voters can place any issue they choose before the electorate by gathering enough qualified signatures, is in a state of chaos.A number of issues decided by direct-vote initiative -- from ending affirmative action as public policy and denying public schooling to illegal-immigrant children, to insurance and campaign reform -- remain ensnarled in the courts over their constitutionality or other challenges.Both major political parties are calling on the courts to throw out a newly passed initiative ending closed-party primary elections in favor of an open system wherein voters regardless of party can cast their ballots for candidates of the other party.

Roscoe Bartlett says broad experience, new ideas and the ability to persuade others should earn him the 6th District seat in the House ofRepresentatives.Bartlett -- who filed Aug. 30 and formally announced his campaign on Wednesday -- is retired from a dual career as a science teacher at Frederick Community College and president of a Frederick solar home building firm, Roscoe Bartlett and Associates Inc.After earning a doctor of physiology degree at the University of Maryland at College Park, Bartlett engaged in research and taught science and medical classes there, at Loma Linda University in Riverside, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- While Ross Perot loosens his fat bankroll for costly television "infomercials" designed to build a massive self-sustaining political organization, another maverick of the 1992 presidential campaign -- Jerry Brown -- is regrouping with his own smaller organization, without significant financial resources.Perot's "United We Stand America," using an 800 telephone number, is said already to have a million members at $15 a head. Brown says his "We the People" organization has about 2,000 signed up in what will be, at the outset anyway, essentially a localized effort.

WASHINGTON -- From all the campaign sound and fury, you would have expected the 110 new members of Congress to swoop in like revolutionaries, sweeping out the old order and creating a new one.But as the freshmen assembled for the first time yesterday on Capitol Hill, they did what the old pols do: They met behind closed doors.Any talk of upending congressional traditions and the iron rule of seniority was muted. These rookies say they're more interested in being team players than in changing the rules of the game.

WASHINGTON -- With the Senate's expected approval today of sweeping changes in campaign finance laws, Sen. John McCain and his reform-minded allies are preparing to savor a long-sought triumph. After struggling for more than a decade, they are on the verge of what is being described as a landmark victory in the fight to reduce the influence of big money in politics. But who wins in the long run -- assuming that the House approves the measure and President Bush signs it into law -- could be an entirely different matter.