Senate May Block Efforts to Limit Large U.S. Campaign Donations

[dogday]

April 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House has passed and sent to the Senate legislation aimed at banning multimillion-dollar contributions to independent political groups by such donors as billionaire investor George Soros.

The measure may be stopped in the Senate by Democratic opposition. Democrats control 44 of 100 seats in that chamber and could block the legislation through a filibuster, or unlimited debate, which takes 41 votes to sustain. House Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the measure, with 190 against it and only seven for it.

``It's much easier to get a bill through the House than the Senate,'' said David Primo, assistant professor of political science at the University of Rochester in New York. Senate Republicans don't necessarily need to convince Democrats to support the measure, Primo said, merely ``not to filibuster it.''

The measure that cleared the House yesterday by a vote of 218-209 would subject so-called 527 organizations -- named after the section of the U.S. tax code that regulates them -- to the same limits as political action committees. Individuals could give $5,000 a year, and corporate and union donations would be barred. Donors could give up to $25,000 to 527 groups involved only in state and local races.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aWjYmil1Tdd0&refer=us

They are after Moveon.org and others, this helped us tremendously in the last election and they want to stop it

[Ian David]

1. Meanwhile, tax-exempt churches are free 2 engage in illegal electioneering