Bush signs campaign finance overhaul as he opens fund-raising trip in South

Wednesday, March 27th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ Without fanfare, President Bush signed landmark campaign finance legislation Wednesday as he opened an aggressive multimillion-dollar fund-raising swing. Within hours, multiple lawsuits challenged the new law.

``This legislation, although far from perfect, will improve the current financing system for federal campaigns,'' Bush said in a written statement released after White House aides telephoned bill sponsors with news of the signing.

Here, on the first stop of his quick swing through South Carolina and Georgia gathering $3 million for Republican candidates, Bush denied that his low-key enactment of the bill was any kind of statement on his ambivalence toward it.

``I wouldn't have signed it if I was really unhappy with it,'' Bush told reporters as he met with emergency and rescue workers at a Greenville fire station.

He said he saw no contradiction in signing the bill on a day of heavy fund raising. ``I'm not going to lay down my arms. I'm going to participate in the rules of the system.''

After the speech to emergency workers, Bush headlined a $1 million fund-raiser for Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and then was flying to Georgia to help collect $1.4 million for Rep. Saxby Chambliss. Thursday, he hopes to raise more than $1 million for Texas Attorney General John Cornyn's bid for the Senate.

Graham told donors at his fund-raiser: ``Enjoy every minute of it. You paid for it.'' The bill will ``make American politics more palatable,'' said Graham, who voted in favor of the bill and was a vocal supporter of Bush's 2000 GOP rival, Sen. John McCain _ the most visible sponsor of campaign-finance legislation.

Back in Washington, the National Rifle Association was first in line to file its legal challenge at the federal courthouse a few blocks from the White House.

The legislation ``eviscerates the core protections of the First Amendment by prohibiting, on pain on criminal punishment, political speech,'' said a legal complaint filed on behalf of the NRA and its political victory fund.

Bush had already said he would stay out of the inevitable litigation.

``This legislation is the culmination of more than six years of debate among a vast array of legislators, citizens and groups. ... It does represent progress in this often-contentious area of public policy debate,'' Bush said in his written statement.

``Taken as a whole, this bill improves the current system of financing for federal campaigns and therefore I have signed it into law.''

That's not how the NRA saw it.

``We are proud to be one of the first plaintiffs to formally ask the federal court to invalidate these new limits on the political speech of ordinary citizens because we believe that this law cannot be allowed to stand, not even for a moment,'' NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said in a statement on the association's lawsuit.

Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and a handful of staff members were in the Oval Office as Bush put his signature to the bill he refused to embrace. Its principal sponsors, some of whom labored over the legislation for 6 1/2 years, were not invited.

McCain, the leading sponsor and a former presidential rival of Bush's, got news of his legislation's enactment in a phone call from Matt Kirk, deputy to White House congressional liaison Nick Calio.

McCain issued his own statement: ``I'm pleased that President Bush has signed campaign finance reform legislation into law.''

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer defended the low-key signing. ``To hold a giant South Lawn ceremony would not have the air of consistency, so the president conducted the signing in a ceremony that was befitting for his beliefs on the bill in its totality,'' he said.

Ranit Schmelzer, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, called it a ``stealth signing.'' Presidents often sign major legislation in splashy public ceremonies surrounded by sponsors of the bill, who take home the souvenir pen.

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., a co-sponsor of the legislation, said he was nonetheless thrilled. ``By ending the corrupt soft-money system, this bill will begin to return the legislative process to all citizens and help restore the public's confidence in their elected leaders,'' he said.

Another sponsor, Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., braced for lawsuits that are already in the works. ``Clearly the battle is not over. This bill will be challenged in court and we are ready for that fight,'' said Meehan.

In his statement, Bush saluted provisions preventing unions and corporations from making unregulated ``soft-money'' contributions to political parties, and another raising the limit on individual donations to candidates.

He also welcomed new requirements compelling speedier disclosure of contributions.

These provisions, Bush said, ``will result in an election finance system that encourages greater individual participation and provides the public more accurate and timely information than does the present system.''

He added, however, that the bill ``has flaws,'' citing its ban on individual ``soft money'' gifts to parties and issue advertising. Both raise free-speech constitutional concerns, Bush said.

``I believe individual freedom to participate in elections should be expanded, not diminished,'' he said.

On one proposal he sought but Congress rejected, Bush suggested he will try again to block labor unions from turning dues into political contributions without the members' express consent.

In addition to the NRA, a group headed by Sen. Mitch McConnell,. R-Ky., filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the legislation. ``Today I filed suit to defend the First Amendment right of all Americans to be able to fully participate in the political process,'' said McConnell, whose legal team includes Kenneth Starr, the one-time independent counsel during the Clinton administration.