Will Fred Thompson's Senate vote for the McCain-Feingold "campaign finance reform" law hurt him with conservative voters? Amanda Carpenter at TownHall.com suggests it might not:
While Thompson is popular with grassroots conservatives, his support for his longtime friend John McCain’s (R.-Ariz.) and Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D.-Wisc.) campaign finance reform legislation gives conservatives reason to pause. Thompson was one of only four Republicans who voted for the bill. Thompson told the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund on March 18 that the law didn’t work out as he intended. Fund said that when asked about its loopholes, Thompson threw up his hands in exasperation and said, “I’m not prepared to go there yet, but I wonder if we shouldn’t just take off the limits and have full disclosure with harsh penalties for not reporting everything on the Internet immediately.”
Former Federal Elections Commission Chairman Michael Toner, a fierce opponent of campaign finance reform, has agreed to become Thompson’s lead lawyer, possibly showing a change of heart by Thompson.
On other red meat issues, however, that reverberate with the base, like the War on Terror, immigration and the liberal media, Thompson has been hitting high notes.
It will be much easier for conservatives to give Thompson a pass for his vote for McCain-Feingold than it will be for them to give McCain a pass for pushing for it all those years. Thompson voted for it, but McCain's politlca heart and soul is in it.
As we enter into what will almost certainly be our first billion dollar election, it will be interesting to see if the presence of candidates like McCain and Thompson will bring campaign finance reform to forefront as an issue.
Posted by: Just6Dollars | May 31, 2007 10:51 PM | Permalink to Comment