Broadcasters could lose campaign-finance fight
By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/11/2002 12:35:00 PM
Broadcasters are gearing up for the upcoming fight on campaign-finance reform in the House; one that, for the first time in years, they are expected to lose.
Included in the main campaign-finance-reform package is a provision that would require broadcasters to sell campaign ads to federal politicians at the lowest rate ads in the same time periods have garnered over the past six months.
One broadcast-industry executive estimated that this could give politicians for federal offices (president, House, Senate) as much as a 65 percent discount on ads.
The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on three separate campaign-finance-reform packages. The legislation with the most votes will go through another round of debate, then either pass or fail.
Observers expect the surviving measure to be one authored by Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin Meehan (D-Mass.), which includes the discount-ad provision. That amendment was written by Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), and it was included as part of the Senate's campaign-finance-reform package last summer.
Broadcasters are having a hard time gathering support to rid themselves of the provision. Sources said the Senate's main campaign-finance reform opponent, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), wants the provision to stay because he thinks it will help him to kill the overall bill when it comes back to the Senate.
But conversely, sources said, Torricelli is telling House Democratic leadership that the bill will only pass the Senate if the amendment stays in.
