LOD: Sunshine Blocker

A new bill in the US Senate to increase disclosure of campaign money again uses the title DISCLOSE Act, but Democratic sponsors have watered it down from last year’s version in the hopes of winning enough Republican support for passage. One report says the Senate bill, S. 3369 “does not prohibit campaign spending by foreign entities, TARP recipients, and government contractors. The bill also does not require companies to report campaign spending to shareholders, or require lobbyists to report campaign spending. But it would require reporting for each $10,000 in spending, and would subject companies, labor unions and super PACs to this rule. However, it would not require parties, candidate committees or charitable organizations to file these reports.” What’s the chance the slimmed-down bill can win a cloture vote later this month? Remarkably, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has just announced he’ll stick with Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell and oppose the legislation, even though he has stepped up his criticism of the Citizens United decision in recent months, calling it “uninformed, arrogant, naïve.”  The Public Campaign Action Fund criticized McCain for putting partisan loyalty above the public interest and observed, “Until there’s a political price to pay for opposing reform and policies like DISCLOSE, politicians will look for any excuse to maintain the status quo.”