John McCain: Co-authored the McCain-Feingold campaign financing law, which has been praised as an attempt to limit the influence of special-interest money but has been criticized as ineffective and a violation of free-speech rights. Has called for an independent ethics office in Congress. Has not released his tax returns. Has been a leading critic of “earmarks” — individual spending proposals that are added to legislation late in the process. Says earmarks promote unnecessary and wasteful spending and allow lawmakers to do favors for special interests. Was one of only a handful of senators to avoid earmarks entirely in 2007, according to a review by the non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. Was enmeshed in an ethics scandal two decades ago: He was one of the “Keating Five” who intervened with federal regulators on behalf of savings-and-loan owner Charles Keating.
Hillary Clinton: Voted for McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and favors public campaign financing. Has not released her tax returns; her campaign says she’ll disclose them around April 15. Was one of the Senate’s top 10 sponsors of earmarks in 2007, helping to steer more than $340 million to home-state projects. Has faced extraordinary scrutiny for decades on a variety of subjects, including a windfall profit on cattle futures and the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of records from her law firm. A lengthy probe by an independent counsel that began with scrutiny of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas ended with no evidence warranting any criminal charges against her.
Barack Obama: Favors public financing of presidential campaigns, including free television and radio time. Proposes a database that would list what federal contractors spend on lobbying. Claims partial credit for a law restricting lobbyist-sponsored trips by lawmakers. Has released his tax returns. Was in the lowest quarter of senators sponsoring earmarks, with $91 million in 2007, less than a third as much as Clinton. On Thursday, released his earmark requests for 2005 and 2006, calling on Clinton to do the same. Critics say he has given incomplete responses to inquiries about his association with Chicago developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who is on trial on public corruption charges unrelated to Obama.
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Sources: Tribune news services and campaign Web sites
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