POLITICS: A Defeat for Campaign Reform

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Calling the amendment "a raid on the public treasury" and a "half-baked concoction," Allen skillfully used his knowledge of the Senate's rules to tie the body up in procedural knots. A cloture vote was called for Sunday—the first Sunday session in more than 40 years—but failed to get the required two-thirds majority. Another cloture vote fell short on Monday, and by that time pressure to pass the debt-ceiling bill was all but irresistible. The Treasury was already halting bond sales, since their purchase would have increased the Government debt beyond the legal limit of $400 billion. The Senate's reformers threw in the towel and passed the bill to raise the debt ceiling to $475.7 billion—minus the public financing amendment.

Ironically, the reformers had fallen victim to their own legislative strategy.

By attaching the measure to a piece of urgently needed legislation, the amendment's sponsors left themselves open to charges of trying to sneak an epochal bill through Congress without allowing adequate debate. Indeed, when the measure first went to the House, many Representatives correctly considered it "non-germane" and thus unacceptable under House rules.

Nonetheless, the fact is that reform of campaign financing is badly needed.

The present system too often invites corruption by placing candidates—except those who are very wealthy—in debt to major contributors and gives incumbents a considerable advantage. In the 1972 elections, for instance, only ten House members were unseated (along with six Senators), in part because the incumbents spent on the average twice as much on their campaigns as did their challengers.

Public Pressure. While admitting the shortcomings of their effort, reformers were especially bitter toward the White House, whose opposition clashed with President Nixon's public statements on the need for campaign reform.

On Nov. 17, Nixon told the Associated Press managing editors of his determination "to do everything possible" to see that campaigns do not "get out of hand in the future." Still, the Administration has gone no further than to propose a commission to study the entire matter; it has resisted any concrete reform efforts. Charged an outraged Senator Mondale: "An Administration which has done more than any other in the history of this nation to illustrate the defects of our present system of financing political campaigns apparently would prefer to have the American Government grind to a halt rather than clean it up."

The victory of Allen and the Administration may be temporary. Senate reformers have already won a promise of early action next year on a public financing bill from the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, and even the usually reluctant House Administration Committee chairman has vowed some action on campaign reform. In the meantime, public pressure can be expected to grow.

A Gallup poll in September showed 65% of the population in favor of public finance. There is no guarantee that public finance can survive the powerful opposition of congressional and Executive incumbents. But in the light of the Watergate horrors, it should at least get the full public hearing that it deserves in the months to come.