Supporters vow to vote on campaign finance reform

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Supporters of campaign finance reform said Sunday the issue is not dead, despite the House's failure to vote on a bill to curb the flow of money into politics.

"Anyone who believes ... that the issue is dead is simply wrong," Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, a sponsor of the House legislation, said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"We haven't yet voted on campaign finance reform," Shays said.

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has made campaign finance reform his signature issue, agreed.

"Look, we'll get a vote sooner or later, as I have always said," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Campaign finance reform was derailed in the House on Thursday when lawmakers shelved consideration of the Shays-Meehan bill -- similar to the McCain-Feingold legislation passed by the Senate -- through a procedural vote.

The Shays-Meehan bill would ban soft money -- unregulated, unlimited funds to political parties -- and it would raise the limit on hard money contributions to individual candidates. The bill would also set limits on so-called issue ads, political advertisements ostensibly about an issue but with the practical effect of hurting or helping a specific candidate.

Since Thursday's vote -- which came on the rules for the debate, not the bill itself -- Democrats and Republicans have been criticizing one another for not really wanting to stem the flow of money in political campaigns.

"We've got to cool this thing down, try to sit down together," McCain said. "There's no reason impugning people's integrity or their motives or anything else. We've got to sit down and move forward."

McCain said he has talked with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, about attaching the campaign finance legislation to other bills, such as appropriations, that the House must pass.

McCain added that a group of conservative House Democrats, known as the Blue Dogs, would press for what is known as a discharge petition to bring the bill to the floor again for a vote.

Shays agreed.

"First, I want to do it just by the hope and prayer and good dialogue that we'll have with leadership to do the right thing ... But secondly, if that doesn't happen, we'll do a discharge petition." Shays said. "And if that doesn't succeed, then I'm going to vote and so will some colleagues against rules on other issues. We simply will have a vote on this bill."

Thursday's vote was on a resolution that would have set the parameters for the campaign finance debate. By rejecting that resolution in a 228-203 vote, lawmakers essentially shelved the bill. The matter was sent back to the House Rules Committee.

Almost all the chamber's Democrats and 19 Republicans voted against the rule because, they said, it would not have allowed for a fair debate.

The Senate's top Republican said he hoped lawmakers would move on to other issues, such as prescription drugs and anti-crime efforts.

"That's what people want us to work on," Trent Lott said on Fox News Sunday. "It's time that we move on."