Ensign steps forward on campaign disclosure bill
By Manu Raju
September 25, 2007
A bill to force senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically may get new life after Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on Monday night disclosed that he had been secretly blocking the plan for months.
The revelation opens the door for a renewed lobbying campaign by watchdog groups to push Ensign to drop his objection to the broadly supported measure. The disclosure also allows supporters to attempt to resolve Ensign’s concerns, which had been unknown until Monday night.
The bill, which has 41 co-sponsors, would put the Senate in line with House and presidential candidates by requiring Senate candidates to file their campaign finance reports electronically.
Ensign, who is the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of the Senate GOP conference, said he does not oppose the bill. But he wants an amendment considered to the bill that would require outside groups filing ethics complaints against senators to disclose their donors.
“We have a problem going on in the Senate where there are outside groups that are filing ethics complaints and they are doing it for purely political reasons,” Ensign said.
But Democrats objected to Ensign’s push for consideration of that amendment, saying it was unrelated to the underlying measure and should be taken up separately.
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