Iowa Congressman Tom Latham was -not- among the representatives who helped pass a campaign finance reform bill early this morning. The Alexander republican, who voted “no,” says the legislation attempts to clean up campaigns, but “doesn’t do much.” He highlights two critical areas. He says it opens a huge soft money loophole big enough to drive a truck through by allowing 60-million dollar individual contributions to parties. It also delays the effective date until after this election. Latham fears the whole measure will be declared unconstitutional as it would in some ways force people NOT to talk about politics. 41 Republicans broke with their party leadership in support of the bill, while a dozen Democrats voted against the measure. It now goes back to the Senate where it could be stalled.
