JACKSON - A comprehensive campaign finance bill is dead after the Senate voted Tuesday to send the legislation back to a conference committee, a key lawmaker says.
The bill called for more stringent disclosure on campaign loans and contributions.
Senate Elections Chairman Bobby Chamberlin, R-Hernando, said the vote doomed the bill. He says both House and Senate negotiators had made concessions, and he didn't believe another compromise could be reached before the session ends on Sunday.
"I'm extremely disappointed in the vote. People who voted to recommit this bill, voted against serious campaign finance reform," Chamberlin said.
Several senators complained that the final version of the bill would limit a corporation's access to contribute to Mississippi campaigns.
Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, said he had been assured Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, a former Washington lobbyist, would veto the bill if it was adopted as written.
"Let's keep it alive and send it back," Kirby said.
The vote to recommit the bill to conference was 25-23. The House had passed the bill earlier Tuesday, but both chambers have to approve the bill before it can go to the governor.
"It is the influence of people that want big money in our politics and don't want any transparency, whoever that might be," said House Elections Chairman Tommy Reynolds, D-Charleston, who watched the Senate vote.
Under the bill, political action committees that make contributions of $10,000 or more to other PACs would have to disclose the original source of the money.
Sen. Tommy Robertson, R-Moss Point, said he didn't like the idea that voluntary shareholder permission must be given before some PAC contributions could be made with corporate money.
He said the bill was "cutting off corporate America from getting into politics."
The bill also required disclosure of the identity of anyone who loans money to a candidate or co-signs for a candidate's loan.
Last year, Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck came under fire for refusing to identify the backer of more than $500,000 in loans made during her 1999 campaign. She later disclosed that multimillionaire attorney Richard Scruggs had backed the loans.
Tuck, who is hospitalized for mycoplasma pneumonia, has repeatedly said she supports a stronger campaign finance law. She also said the language about loans should be clearer.
The bill had also required any nonprofit group such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or any other 501(c) entity to disclose the source of contributions of $200 or more if the organization names specific candidates in advertisements purchased during an election cycle.
The debate over outside groups influencing Mississippi elections was fueled in 2000 when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent about $1 million on ads for the judicial races.
And during last year's election season, at least three groups spent a combined $1 million on television advertisements that criticized Democratic candidates in Mississippi's election.
As non-profits, the groups were not required to disclose donors or expenditures.
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