November 4, 2002
Religious groups differ over value of campaign-finance reform bills
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--Six months after passage of the McCain-Feingold bill, religious groups remain stubbornly divided on the issue of campaign finance reform.
___Religious leaders on both sides of the matter came together this fall at a conference hosted by the Interfaith Alliance Foundation, one of the most prominent groups seeking to eliminate soft money and influence-peddling in politics.
___Speakers on the right, however, argued that the new restrictions on campaign contributions and issue ads amount to censorship and hamper participation in the political process.
___"A generation ago, American citizens were denied access and involvement in the political process because of the color of their skin," said Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, a group that promotes opposition to legal abortion. "Today people are denied access because of who they associate with and the content of their speech under this bill."
___Mahoney criticized the law--named after sponsors Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis.--for including a provision barring minors from contributing to political campaigns.
___"In a day when we see horrific lack of involvement by young people in the political process, we should do all that we can to motivate and inspire this generation, not discourage and crush them," he said.
___McCain-Feingold advocates, on the other hand, said the law makes it more difficult for deep-pocketed individuals and interest groups to dominate the public debate and buy access to politicians by circumventing federal election regulations.
___"McCain-Feingold is anything but a perfect law," said Russ Siler, director of the Lutheran Office on Governmental Affairs. "But it lays an essential foundation," he said, and is a crucial step toward reshaping the electoral process "in a way that is intended to draw people in (and) not to exclude them."
___The hard-won legislation, known officially as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, will go into effect after the November elections. Among other things, it bans the use of soft money--the unregulated sums donated by individuals, interest groups and party committees -- in federal elections.
___Forty percent of people who described themselves as religious and 52 percent of clergy said they favored banning all soft money donations to campaigns, according to a Gallup/Interfaith Alliance poll released in August 2001.
___Panelists were especially divided over the law's restrictions on issue ads. Specifically, the law prohibits the use of soft money to pay for television and radio ads promoting or attacking candidates 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. The same poll found that 45 percent of religious lay people and 43 percent of clergy favored banning television ads by interest groups in the last 60 days before an election.
___"The problem with the issue advocacy ads is that they're often bought ... by large dollars from corporate groups and labor groups and other big interest groups that tend to want to sway your thoughts and opinions," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a former member of Congress from Pennsylvania.
___But Michael Brown, national church liaison for the Christian Coalition, said such time restrictions make it difficult to educate undecided voters at the point when they are just beginning to tune in--right before an election.
___"Not only is (the 60-day window) a muzzle, it's also really a restriction on those who would want to hear ... in order to make an intelligent decision on the issues that are important in an election," he said.
___In late September, the Federal Election Commission ruled, in effect, that religious groups and other non-profits may produce voter guides on issues and run issue ads on radio and TV right up to an election so long as they do not directly endorse or attack a candidate.
___Meanwhile, the legal fight against McCain-Feingold is just beginning. Led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the legislation's chief congressional opponent, more than 80 plaintiffs, including the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, have joined in a civil suit against the Department of Justice and the FEC.
___The Christian Coalition and the Christian Defense Coalition were originally among the plaintiffs in the suit, but have since dropped out.
___Speakers on the right argued that the new restrictions on campaign contributions and issue ads amount to censorship and hamper participation in the political process.
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