McCain, Whitehouse Team Up on Campaign Finance | Congress ...

By Ryan Teague Beckwith
May 18, 2012 ? 4:24 p.m.

Chris Maddaloni

Sen. John McCain attends a press conference on defense spending. To buy this photo, go to: http://roll.cl/cqrcpix

Is McCain-Whitehouse the new McCain-Feingold?

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse?(D-R.I.) are teaming up on campaign finance reform, urging the Supreme Court to let a Montana law stand, reports Roll Call?s Eliza Newlin Carney.

In an unusual bipartisan alliance that is sure to be closely watched, McCain and Whitehouse filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging it to let stand a Montana law that bans corporate campaign expenditures. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock is also scheduled to file a friend of the court brief today, with the backing of up to two dozen state attorneys general.

?Evidence from the 2010 and 2012 electoral cycles has demonstrated that so-called independent expenditures create a strong potential for corruption and the appearance thereof,? McCain and Whitehouse wrote in their amicus brief. ?The news confirms, daily, that existing campaign finance rules purporting to provide for ?independence? and ?disclosure? in fact provide neither.?

In a 2010 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned a law McCain authored with then-Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

Read the full story on RollCall.com.

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