Head to Head: Bush's finance reform rises above the rest

While many candidates talk about campaign finance reform, presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush is the only candidate who has acted to initiate reforms above and beyond those required by current law.\n"Complete and rapid disclosure of all campaign contributions is a healthy campaign finance reform that can begin today, and I am proud that my campaign is taking the lead," Bush said. "It doesn't take a new law for a candidate to post campaign contributors on the Internet every day, it just takes commitment to public disclosure."\n Because Bush is committed to rapid and full disclosure of campaign contributions, the Bush campaign discloses donors on its Web page daily and makes the list searchable to anyone with access to the Internet.\nBUSH'S PLAN FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM:\n• Supports banning "soft money" contributions from labor unions and corporations because members and shareholders have no say in how those contributions are given.\n• Supports enforcement of the Beck decision and enactment of effective "Paycheck Protection" legislation so union members have the right to decide whether to direct money to political activities.\n• Supports raising individual contribution limits.\n• Supports instant disclosure of contributions; Bush was the first presidential candidate to voluntarily implement this reform with near-real-time disclosure on the Internet.\nVice President Al Gore has repeatedly been less than truthful on campaign finance reform.\nIn a New York Times article last November, "Gore noted that he had backed a sweeping campaign finance bill sponsored by Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell D. Feingold, D-Wis., 'Unlike Senator Bradley, I was a co-sponsor of it,' Gore said, 'and I feel that it's very important to get the influence of special interest money out of our politics."\nGore never even served with Feingold. Even Bill Bradley called Gore on this.\n"Gore not only did not, but could not have co-sponsored McCain-Feingold. Russ Feingold was not elected until 1992. Al Gore quit the Senate in 1992 to become Vice President. Feingold and Gore never served together," Bradley said in a press release last December.\nGore claims to be adamantly against political action committees and soft money.\nIn a Democratic debate on "Meet the Press" last December, Gore said, "I refuse to accept any PAC money."\nBut the truth is, as recently as 1998, Gore sponsored a leadership PAC for fellow Democrats in the 1996 campaign. Last June, "Roll Call" reported, "In the last election cycle, Al Gore had the top leadership PAC on the Democrat side, distributing $1.2 million to candidates." The name of the PAC was Leadership '98, formerly Friends of Al Gore.\nThen on NBC's "Meet the Press," Tim Russert reported, "The Clinton/Gore campaign spent $40 million in soft money in 1996, $15 million of it on negative attack ads against Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich. Because of the fundraising irregularities in raising that soft money, 22 people have been indicted, 12 have been convicted, 70 witnesses took the Fifth Amendment and 18 witnesses left the country, 23 foreign witnesses refused to be interviewed."\nIn a recent Washington Times article, "Attorney General Janet Reno on Aug. 23 ignored the advice of at least three of her top advisors and refused to name a special counsel to look into questionable statements made by Vice President Al Gore during an investigation of his 1996 fund-raising activities."\nRobert J. Conrad, head of the Justice Department's task force looking into the fund-raising scandal, said Gore might have lied under oath in an April interview when he said he did not know that a series of coffees he hosted in his offices and a 1996 event at the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles were in fact fund-raisers.\n"I did not know this was a fund-raiser, and I do not to this day know that it was a fund-raiser," Gore told investigators in April, despite an e-mail message in which Gore refers to the Buddhist temple event as a "fund-raiser."\n"Janet Reno has steadfastly refused to follow the recommendations of her career law enforcement officers and allow an independent investigation of high-ranking administration officials. There was never any reason to believe she would do any differently in this case," said Sen. Fred Thompson (The Washington Times, Weekly National Edition, Aug. 28).\nIn stark contrast to Gore, our beloved Representative John Hostettler keeps his word. Hostettler does not, under any circumstances, accept PAC money. He holds the following conviction avoiding even the appearance of undue influence. John Hostettler votes free from monetary enticements.\nBush and Hostettler continue to restore integrity and honor during their campaigns. What a breath of fresh air!