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natural for Republicans to have some division on it. It's natural for us to have some division on it."
Durbin and Dodd have yet to release specifics of their public-financing plan, but Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said it would likely borrow from the Obey-Frank bill.
Durbin is "open to a broad range of ideas here, but he feels that the heart of the lobbying reform question is still money," Shoemaker said. "Until we do something about the No. 1 incentive to raise all that money, which is the cost of TV advertising, we're not going to be able to effect long-term, solid, workable lobbying reform."
Durbin and Voinovich have maintained close relations since leading the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's government-management panel during the 108th Congress, though Durbin is no longer a committee member.
Dodd shares Durbin's goal of attracting Republican support for their take on public financing, according to his spokeswoman, Stacie Paxton.
"Senator Dodd has discussed the issue with various senators and believes bipartisan support for such an effort is essential to its enactment," Paxton said.
During Jan. 25 testimony before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Voinovich offered to hold an Ethics Committee hearing on the Senate's ability to enforce existing lobbying laws, but it is unclear whether Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairwoman of the governmental-affairs panel, intends to take him up on the bid. Collins's office did not return a call for comment by press time.
Such a hearing would be unprecedented for the Ethics Committee, which typically conducts business under a veil of secrecy and does not intervene in investigations of the executive branch. Despite that tradition, however, Voinovich and the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Tim Johnson (S.D.), took the unusual step of publicly releasing committee correspondence Friday revealing that the Justice Department has asked the committee not to pursue action against any senators tied to the ongoing Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
"The Department of Justice has made the Committee aware that it has concerns about the impact an Ethics Committee investigation may have on the Department's ongoing criminal investigation into Abramoff-related matters," Voinovich and Johnson wrote in Friday's letter, responding to an inquiry from Fred Wertheimer, president campaign-finance watchdog Democracy 21 and a public-financing supporter.
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