Bluff Called

Now what?

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has filed a new version of a campaign-finance bill aimed at winning the support of Maine’s key GOP centrist senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

The new version strips out several provisions included in the House-passed bill that conservative groups, as well as Collins, had said provides an unfair advantage to unions over corporations and other groups. Democrats are courting Snowe and Collins and could bring the bill to the floor for a vote as early as next week.

The bill specifically jettisons a provision dealing with requirements that all businesses, unions and groups must disclose transfers to or from or between their affiliates of $10,000 or more, according to a Senate aide familiar with the changes.

[...]

Collins’s spokesman, Kevin Kelley, did not respond to a request for comment.

Coming up with a new bogus excuse will probably take a few hours. (Hypocrisy is hard work.)

Meanwhile, elsewhere:

Pressure to support campaign finance disclosure legislation continues to mount for Maine Republicans Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins...

Advocacy groups have been lobbying the two moderates in an attempt to get the 60 votes needed so the bill (S 3295) can clear procedural hurdles in the Senate. The White House-supported measure, known as the DISCLOSE Act, would expand reporting requirements for political spending in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision that opened the door to corporate donations to campaigns.

Wednesday, the coalition of public interest groups wrote to Collins and Snowe and cited a poll showing 85 percent of Maine voters say it is important to know who paid for the political campaign communications that they see or hear.

[...]

Signers included the Maine Small Business Coalition, the Maine League of Women Voters; the Maine chapter of the League of Young Voters; Maine People’s Alliance; U.S. PIRG on behalf of its Maine members; the Maine Council of Churches; Maine Common Cause; and Engage Maine.

Interesting to see how this plays out.