Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

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The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) is U.S. Congressional legislation which regulates the financing of political campaigns. It is also known as the McCain-Feingold Bill, after its chief sponsors, Senators John McCain (Republican of Arizona) and Russ Feingold (Democrat of Wisconsin). The law became effective on 6 November 2002, the new legal limits became effective on 1 January 2003.

As noted in a Supreme Court ruling on the BCRA, it was designed to address three issues:

The increased role of soft money in campaign financing,
The proliferation of issue ads, and
What were regarded as disturbing campaign practices during the federal elections of 1996, including (to some degree) the presidential race.

Contents

1 Provisions
2 History
3 Legal disputes
4 Impact
5 References
6 External links

Provisions

Major provisions:

A wholesale prohibition on soft money contributions and expenditure to national political parties -- unlimited donations nominally made for non-campaign purposes, but potentially used to influence federal elections.
A prohibition on soft money contributions and expenditure to state and local political parties, with a few limited exceptions.
Federal candidates and officeholders prohibited from accepting or spending soft money.
A ban on supposedly non-partisan "issue ads" funded by soft money from corporations and labor unions - those referring to candidates for federal election without expressly advocating their election or defeat -- in the 60 days prior to a general election, or 30 days prior to a primary election.
Disclosure of sources of finance for "electioneering communications" in excess of $10,000 per year.
A political party spending money in a general election campaign must choose between making coordinated expenditures on behalf of its candidate, or independent expenditures on behalf of its candidate, but not both. (Ruled unconstitutional in McConnell v. FEC, but later upheld by the Supreme Court)
Minors are prohibited from making contributions to candidates and political parties. (Ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court)
Hard money legal limits raised:
*Limit for individual contributions per candidate per election increased from $1,000 to $2,000.
*Limit for individual contributions to National Party Committees increased from $20,000 to $25,000 per year.
*Limit for individual contributions to state and local party committees increased from $5,000 to $10,000

Other provisions (incomplete):

Fundraising on federal property is prohibited.

History

The first version of the McCain-Feingold Act was introduced in 1997, but the Senate Republican leadership refused to allow it to come to a vote in four years, even when the companion bill Shays-Meehan passed the House of Representatives several times (by means of a discharge petition to bring the bill to the floor without the cooperation of the leadership). The House voted 240-189 for the bill on 14 February 2002, a day after the White House Press Secretary -- Ari Fleischer had indicated the President would sign (i.e. not veto) a bill "that improves the current situation". The Senate voted for the House's version of the bill by 60-40, on 20 March, avoiding the need for a conference committee that might block key provisions of the bill. A filibuster was previously ended by cloture 68-32.

Campaign finance reform was a significant issue in the 2000 presidential campaign, and Republican candidate George W. Bush said that he would support the bill if it was amended to regulate traditionally pro-Democrat soft money sources (labor and government unions) as well as traditionally pro-Republican sources (businesses). The 2000 election campaign had seen an unprecedented growth in soft money, the combined total for Democrats and Republicans rising from $239 million in 1996 to $449 million in 2000. The scandal enveloping Enron, a company which had been a major soft money donor, also helped build support for the bill. Bush signed the bill, with reservations, on 27 March. In an official statement, he said "I believe that this legislation, although far from perfect, will improve the current financing system for Federal campaigns".

Grassroots support for the passage of the bill was achieved by the 3,200-mile walk of 90 year-old Doris "Granny D" Haddock of Dublin, New Hampshire. Her walk from Pasadena, California to Washington D.C. resulted in the recruitment of thousands of citizens and dozens of organizations, including the AARP, to the issue. Hundreds of newspaper and television reports and one of the first grassroots use of the Internet fueled her campaign. The last 100 miles of her trek were in deep snows on cross-country skis. After a fist-waving speech on the U.S. Capitol's steps, attended by a large crowd of supporters and Members of Congress, she organized for the work of final passage. Two years later, after dozens of vigils, protest walks, two arrests and fasts on Capitol Hill, she was in the gallery of both the Senate and the House when final passage was achieved, receiving salutes from the floors of both chambers.

Legal disputes

Provisions of the legislation were challenged as unconstitutional by a group of plaintiffs led by Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell. In December 2003, the Supreme Court upheld most of the legislation. See McConnell v. FEC.

Subsequently, Republicans have filed complaints with the FEC concerning the raising and spending of soft money by 527 committees -- officially non-partisan organizations organized under Section 527 of the IRS code. To date, these have been Democratic-leaning organizations, such as MoveOn.org, The Media Fund, and America Coming Together,and Republican-leaning organizations, such as Christian Coalition of America, Swiftboat Veterans for Truth and American Petroleum Institute -- financed in large part by wealthy individuals (most notably George Soros and Ken Lay) and labor unions and businesses. In May 2004, the FEC voted to postpone a decision concerning the legality of such fundraising, thus allowing it to continue unaffected through the 2004 election cycle.

Impact

With the 2004 elections being the first campaign season operating under the new rules, the impact of BCRA is just being felt. It has, however, been a very significant one, as much of the traditional functions of the parties, financed by soft money, are moving to the 527 groups mentioned above.

One immediately recognizable impact is that, as a result of the so-called "stand by your ad" provision, all campaign advertisements now include the candidate appearing on screen to say something similar to "I'm John Doe and I approved this message." Anheuser-Busch parodied this statement in an election-themed series of commercials in 2004, ending each spot with a donkey saying "I'm the Budweiser Donkey and I approved this message."

References

External links

[Campaign Legal Center on BCRA]
[FEC on BCRA (lots of material)]
[Full text of BCRA (PDF format)]
[Guide to the BCRA]
[Summary of BCRA provisions]
[President Signs Campaign Finance Reform Act Statement by the President (whitehouse.gov)]
[Representative Democracy versus Corporate Democracy: How Soft Money Erodes the Principle of "One Person, One Vote"] - 1988 article by Russell D. Feingold, co-sponsor of the 2002 law.
[REAL Campaign Reform.org]
[The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002: A Threat to Freedom] by Alexander S. Peak

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