Within 20 minutes of convening Wednesday morning, Vermont Senators had easily overcome Gov. James Douglas' veto of the new campaign finance reform and set the stage for the larger battle in that small body - the controversial energy bill, H.520.
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Putney, said Vermonters are worried that the influx of money flooding into congressional and U.S. Senate races will trickle down to the state races.
"My political hero, George Aiken, spent, I believe, in his last U.S. Senate campaign, $13.28," Shumlin said. "Last year we saw the two major campaigns in the U.S. Senate race spend a combined $12 million."
Sen. George Coppenrath, R-Caledonia, a member of the Senate Government Operations Committee who has consistently voted against the measure, announced Wednesday that he would float an alternative proposal when the Legislature comes back for the second half of the session in early 2008.
Coppenrath said the bill being debated is unnecessary because Vermont does not have a problem with money influencing elections. He added that setting contribution limits was an assault on free speech.
"The only reasonable control is more reporting of contributions," he said. "Then let the press do its job and report those facts to the public."
But Sen. Jeannette White, D-Windham, the chair of the Government Operations Committee, said Coppenrath missed about one week of testimony earlier this year that would have addressed all of his concerns.
"We did hear that there is a problem in Vermont," White said.
The bill next goes to the Vermont House - which is now embroiled in the beginning stages of the massive debate surrounding the energy bill - where its fate is less than certain than it was in the Senate.
-Dan Barlow
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