Democrats Ready to Revamp Campaign Finance

Democrats have completed a draft of their new campaign finance reform bill, and plan to introduce it as soon as next week. The bill, which is designed in part to blunt the effects of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, would require CEOs to publicly attach their names to ads their companies buy, much as candidates do, and require groups to disclose their major donors, according to a draft obtained by the Washington Post.

The bill would also severely restrict political spending by foreign corporations, and bar any company that received federal contracts in excess of $50,000 from spending any money to influence federal elections. Republicans have already complained that the bill goes too far and discourages corporate free speech, but Democrats hope that the bill's obvious populist appeal will draw at least a few across the aisle. (More Campaign Finance Reform stories.)