An act of bipartisanship for campaign finance reform

By By Rep. Ronald Grantland, Guest Columnist
There is nothing new about partisanship; it’s as old as democracy itself.
Just look at the first democrats of ancient Greece. 400 years before the birth of Christ Plato complained: “the partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.”
His words ring as true today as they did back then. When partisanship rules, it isn’t about the facts, it is only about winning.
The polls clearly show most Americans want bipartisanship in this time of crisis.
They recognize that party labels shouldn’t obscure the common values and common interests that we all share as citizens of this great country. When so much is at-risk, the people’s business must be done.
But as we saw in the past few weeks in Washington, especially in the fight over the stimulus package designed to keep the country from sliding off an economic cliff, bipartisanship is very hard to come by. Party-line votes were the norm, not the exception.
There are philosophical distinctions and policy differences between the parties.
But when you look at the actions in Congress, there often is an overriding sense that the partisan divide is more posture than conviction, and that Representatives vote in lock step with their party rather than for their constituents.
No wonder why Americans crave a more cooperative idea of government that bipartisanship represents.
In the Alabama Legislature, especially the Senate, the divide is often not partisan but personal. Last week a whole legislative day was wasted because senators got into a fight over what amounted to name-calling. While the House passes bills and does the work of the people, the Senate gets bogged down over seemingly trivial points.
Last year, that meant that a lot of good bills that passed the House died in the Senate.
One of those bills is a landmark piece of legislation of campaign finance reform that would take a giant step in cleaning up political contributions in Alabama. It’s called the PAC-to-PAC transfer ban, and would stop the process of shuffling money between political action committees to hide its origination.
This kind of political money laundering, while legal now, certainly undermines the integrity of the political process by hiding from voters critical information they should know before they go to the polls.
This is the eighth year that Rep. Jeff McLaughlin (D-Guntersville) has sponsored the PAC-to-PAC transfer ban. Eight years is a long hard slog, but it is something Jeff is dedicated to.
Last year it passed the House with full bipartisan support, but the Senate so watered it down that there could be no agreement and the bill died.
Last week McLaughlin’s bill came up again, and this time it passed the House 98-0. Now that is a true demonstration of bipartisanship.
Let’s hope the Senate can do the same thing and we can take a giant step forward on campaign finance reform, and foster a sense of bipartisanship these times require.