The rainbow's end might finally be near. While enactment isn't certain, the bill is likely to pass because it doesn't include any specific reforms. Instead, Sens. Schumer, Brownback, McConnell, and Torricelli would create a six-month commission to recommend best practices and then a new agency to distribute grants. The bar on felon voting, which a new paper from the Institute for Policy Research says has cost Democrats several Senate seats, will remain.
Election reform is on the move, but campaign finance reform seems to be going nowhere fast.
The Republican Senate leadership has stalled the McCain-Feingold bill, though it passed last month. In the meantime, both Republicans and Democrats are taking advantage of the delay and raising money in record amounts. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the first three months of 2001 have doubled the amount raised by the same point in 1999. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has quadruple the money in the bank it had in April 1999. Democrats are raising more soft money, Republicans more hard.