The Future of Campaign Finance Reform: Constitutional Challenges, Political Realities

Now that similar versions of the McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan campaign finance legislation have passed both the Senate and House, prospects for a bill emerging from Congress and being signed into law by President Bush have increased dramatically. The next forum for debate will be the Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) will try to secure approval of the version passed by the House. If successful, attention will then turn from the legislative arena to the courts and the practical world of election campaigns. This briefing is designed to provide background on: the Senate debate, adjustments in campaign financing that candidates might make in response to a new federal law, the likely constitutional challenges, and other consequences.

The briefing will be presented by three co-authors of The New Campaign
Finance Sourcebook
(Brookings 2002), Thomas Mann, Daniel Ortiz, and Trevor Potter,
as well as Randolph Moss, a partner at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering,
and Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Moderator:
THOMAS E. MANN
W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow, Governmental Studies,
Brookings Institution; Director, Brookings Campaign Finance Website

Participants:
RANDOLPH MOSS
Partner, Wilmer Cutler & Pickering; Former Assistant Attorney General,
Office of Legal Counsel

NORMAN J. ORNSTEIN
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Director, Campaign Finance Project (funded by The
Pew Charitable Trusts)

DANIEL R. ORTIZ
John Allan Love Professor of Law and Joseph C. Carter, Jr. Research
Professor of Law, University of Virginia

TREVOR POTTER
Partner, Caplin & Drysdale;
General Counsel, Campaign and Media Legal Center;
Former Chairman, Federal Election Commission

RSVP: Please contact the Brookings Office of Communications by phone at 202/797-6105,
by email at [email protected] or through the online form.