Rep. Karen Shepherd, D-Utah, and other freshmen are pushing a new way to avoid public campaign financing and still give candidates incentives to limit spending voluntarily.
And even House Speaker Thomas Foley says he likes it.Their idea is to force candidates to pay a certain percentage of donations they raise into a pool. If they observe spending limits, they would receive up to $200,000 back from that pool.
Shepherd, co-chairwoman of a freshman Democratic task force on reform, said freshmen want to limit campaign spending - but courts have ruled that such caps must be voluntary to not infringe on freedom of speech.
As an incentive to participate, some have proposed creating a public financing system for Congress similar to that for presidential candidates, where taxpayers could check off on tax forms money for a campaign fund. But using taxpayer money for that is controversial.
Shepherd said taxing campaign donations instead would be an easier way to come up with incentive money, which also would help level the playing field between incumbents - who easily raise money from special interests - and challengers who do not.
"We envision having a spending limit of maybe $600,000, and letting people keep $200,000 from individuals, $200,000 from political activity committees and have $200,000 come from the pool," she said.
"We want the penalty to be so strong for not being in the system that people would participate" in spending caps, she said. In other words, a candidate's choice would be: limit spending to $600,000 or automatically lose up to $200,000 that would come from the pool.
She said the pool could gain a surplus of money from people who spend less than $600,000 a year - which a majority of races now do.
"We are trying to prohibit this (House) from being a millionaires' club. We are trying to limit PAC money. We are trying to take as much of the money culture out of politics as possible," she said.
Foley told Congress Daily this week that he too likes the idea being pushed by Shepherd and Rep. Eric Fingerhut, D-Ohio. "I think I'm inclined to favor a tax on contributions," he said.
Shepherd said the idea hadn't been taken seriously until the past few days. "It was discussed months ago, but just didn't take. This time, it took - and we're trying to work out the details."
The House is expected to debate campaign reform - and how to finance it - later this month.