Veto session to decide campaign finance law

July 10, 2007

MONTPELIER – If the Legislature fails to override Gov. James Douglas' veto of the new campaign finance reform on Wednesday, Vermont politicians will find themselves operating under an outmoded law for a second election.

Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House both said late last week that they believe they have the votes – a two-thirds majority – to make the reform bill law without Douglas' support.

The campaign finance reform bill will be the Senate's first order of business during the July 11 veto session and President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, said the chamber's Democrats will easily buck Douglas' veto.

"I expect we'll override the governor's veto and send the bill over to the House that morning," Shumlin said Thursday.

"It'll be a very close vote," said Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, an advocacy organization in Montpelier that lobbied hard for the passage of the bill this year. "But there are a number of things that give us hope."

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