WASHINGTON Republican Rep. Linda Smith says the GOP and House Speaker Newt Gingrich run the risk of being blamed for blocking significant campaign-finance reform in Congress this year.
And she said Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., is wrong to conclude her campaign-finance-overhaul package would hurt Republicans more than Democrats, and that she plans to tell him so.
The freshman lawmaker from Washington state is helping push a bipartisan package that would ban the political action committees that contribute special-interest money to campaigns, restrict out-of-state contributions and provide discounted broadcast time to candidates who agree to overall spending limits.
The plan, touted as giving challengers a better chance against incumbent office-holders, has been endorsed by billionaire Ross Perot, former Democratic Sen. Paul Tsongas, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause, among others.
While many incumbent Democrats are working to block her proposal, the GOP resistance is more visible, Smith told reporters this past week. She had previously criticized Gingrich, R-Ga., for advocating continued study of the proposal rather than seeking to bring it to a vote.
"I think right now Newt looks like he is in the way the most because he has made a statement. Often Newt looks like he is more in the way because he talks," she said.
Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole likely will be held responsible for any action or inaction on campaign-finance reform because they control the legislative schedule, agreed Ann McBride, the head of Common Cause.
"The people who have the ability to bring this to the floor and give us what we want are the speaker and the majority leader," she said.
Opposition to campaign reform is one of the reasons former House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., was unseated in 1994 after 30 years in Congress, McBride said.
"Newt Gingrich is supposed to be a historian. He should look back to see what happened to Speaker Foley," she said.
Aides to Gingrich had no immediate response to the criticism.
When Smith was threatening last fall to force a House floor vote on her bill, Gingrich suggested she take her ideas to Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., and the House Oversight Committee reviewing the campaign laws.
"I think she'd get more done by working with Chairman Thomas in drafting a bill," Gingrich said in October.
Smith now promises a discharge petition to move her bill out of committee and onto the House floor if there's no action by the end of February.
She said the issue could be crucial this fall as voters try to determine whether Republicans made good on their promises to reform Congress promises considered a key factor in the 1994 GOP landslide.
"I think people are going to look at this and say, Was this a new Congress or not? Did it become a part of the system and not make the changes we expected?"' she said.
"That could make the Republicans look like they became the same as the past. I don't know if people will understand that a lot of the past PAC-building was built by the Democrats. They just know they want us to change it and they want us to change it quickly," she said.
"They perceive this system as being bought by somebody else."
Smith said Gingrich has mistakenly figured voters will be satisfied with accomplishment of most of the goals in the Republicans' 1994 Contract With America.
"I think he believes if we pass a balanced budget, people will say that is good ... I say no, there is discontent. They believe they are alienated from the system. The system is broken," she said.
Smith said she doesn't understand Gorton's stance on the campaign-finance package.
"It doesn't hurt Republicans. It hurts people who don't want to go to the streets and campaign. ... It would stop the kind of fund-raising we do, but Democrats do the same kind," Smith said.
But Gorton said "there's no question" Smith's proposal would hit Republicans hardest.
"I think she simply takes power away from, say, small business and places it in the hands of pressure organizations like the National Council on Senior Citizens and front groups for organized labor and the national environmental organizations," he said.
Gorton opposes the proposed ban on PACs and wants to be able to accept money from outside Washington state.
Campaign reform should focus on groups that make independent expenditures on behalf of candidates, such as labor unions, the National Rifle Association and groups on both sides of the abortion issue, he said.
There currently are no limits on the amount of money those outside groups can spend as long as the ads and mailings are not coordinated with the candidate.