The Legislative Odyssey of BCRA

Abstract

In this chapter of Life after Reform: When Bipartisan Campaign Reform Meets Politics, the author traces the odyssey Congress traveled to produce the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) as an overview of the diverse policy views, & the difficulties of resolving the many substantive concerns of campaign finance reform. Diverse policy preferences & the debates are contextualized in the contentious political environment that limited coalition building due to tensions between differing perspectives on problem definition, partisan interests, constitutional imperatives & parliamentary procedure. The evolution of the partisan debate on soft monies & labor union spending issues surrounding the McCain Feingold bill are traced through the 106th & 107th Congresses & eventual signing by President Bush. The author concludes that debates about campaign finance reform remain because the debate originates in the various determinates of the behavior of political donors that lead to diverse policy preferences. 1 Table. J. Harwell