The Tolbert Report

A controversial piece of election finance reform legislation being pushed by President Obama may come up for a vote in the Senate as soon as this afternoon.  The DISCLOSE Act would require certain corporations, labor unions, and special interest groups to disclose their donor list that fund their political spending.

The Arkansas Democratic Senate primary between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter was a good example of how special interest groups – such as Americans for Job Security or Arkansans for Common Sense – can spend money on candidates without disclosure who is funding their group.

“A vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special interest takeovers of our elections,” said President Obama yesterday. “It is damaging to our democracy. It is precisely what led a Republican President named Theodore Roosevelt to tackle this issue a century ago.”

But many criticize the DISCLOSE Act for have numerous exemptions for certain groups in order to gain their support for the bill.  Perhaps the most prominent is the National Rifle Association which obtained exemption in return for not opposing the bills passage.

“The mere suggestion that a bill designed to save politicians’ jobs should take precedent over helping millions of Americans find work is an embarrassing indictment of Democrats’ priorities,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who is leading Republicans to oppose the bill. “The DISCLOSE Act seeks to protect unpopular Democrat politicians by silencing their critics and exempting their campaign supporters from an all out attack on the First Amendment. In the process, the authors of the bill have decided to trade our Constitutional rights away in a backroom deal that makes the Cornhusker Kickback look like a model of legislative transparency.”

The bill passed the House with the 3 Arkansas Democratic Congressman voting for it while Republican Congressman John Boozman opposed it saying that it would limit free speech and that he had problems with the backroom deals for its passage. To my knowledge, Arkansas Senators Lincoln and Pryor have not yet stated a position.  I have contacted both offices and will update when they respond.  The first cloture vote is expected this afternoon.

UPDATE – Sen. Lincoln and Pryor both voted for the measure however the cloture motion failed 57 to 41.

Now that Sen. Lincoln is on record supporting the bill, I suppose she will call for the disclosure of the names funding Americans for Job Security and Arkansans for Common Sense.