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Kwame Holman reports on the campaign finance story.

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KWAME HOLMAN: A dozen Republican supporters of campaign finance reform in the House have won a dramatic victory. They met with Speaker Newt Gingrich today and convinced him to allow a wide open debate and vote on the issue within a month.

REP. ZACH WAMP, (R) Tennessee: I find this to be an example of a responsive attitude, recognizing democracy, doing the right thing, and he needs a lot of credit.

REP. BRIAN BILBY, (R) California: And it's nice for those of us who want to be renegades every once in a while and want to stand up and disagree to be able to do that without fear.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrats put a different spin on the speaker's change of heart.

REP. DICK GEPHARDT, Minority Leader: Make no mistake, this was a retreat, not a conversion. The Republican leadership still opposes reform that reduces the role of money in politics, and they still reject the bipartisan reform efforts that have any real credibility as vehicles of change.

KWAME HOLMAN: It was just a month ago that the Republican leadership allowed only one day to debate campaign finance reform. Leaders strictly limited the legislative options available to members and limited the chances any major reform would pass by requiring a 2/3 majority. Only two minor bills were approved.

REP. ASA HUTCHINSON, (R) Arkansas: I'm deeply disappointed that in the last moments the people's hope for reform was crushed when majority rule became defeat by design.

KWAME HOLMAN: Supporters of campaign finance reform immediately announced they would continue their push to force a full and open debate of the issue on the House floor. They would do so by collecting 218 signatures, a majority of members on a so-called "discharge petition," which would supersede the authority of House leaders.

REP. DICK GEPHARDT: It will take a bipartisan majority in the House to force this issue onto the schedule and to give members of both parties a chance to vote on all the bills.

KWAME HOLMAN: Most House Democrats and a few Republicans quickly signed on. Still, supporters of campaign finance reform were 28 signatures short. But during the just-completed Easter recess more members, especially Republicans, were persuaded to sign on. As of today, the number of signatures needed was down to 14. Early last evening Barbara Lee, the newly elected Democratic congresswoman from California, made signing the discharge petition her first official act just minutes after being sworn in. Indiana Democrat Tim Roemer also signed the discharge petition last night but did so reluctantly, he said, because it disrupts the normal legislative process.

REP. TIM ROEMER, (D) Indiana: I believe that when the process is abused, as it has been, by the Republican leadership, and when the debate is not allowed on a bill that is supported in a bipartisan way by the Democratic and Republican parties, then you need to take the very unusual and extraordinary step of signing a discharge petition and bringing the bill directly to the floor.

KWAME HOLMAN: And apparently, House Republican leaders recognized enough members were ready to do the same, so today they quietly informed supporters of campaign finance reform that they, indeed, would have their day. Arkansas Republican Asa Hutchinson hadn't yet signed the discharge petition, and apparently now won't have to.

REP. ASA HUTCHINSON: We've been told that they're going to come back to this; that we have a good chance of bringing a bipartisan bill as a base bill to the floor under a regular rule. And obviously that would prevent the necessity of pushing forward on a discharge petition.

KWAME HOLMAN: Even if you pass something here in the House, do you think there's any chance the Senate will come back to it?

REP. ASA HUTCHINSON: Well, any legislation that is adopted this year would go into effect in the next election cycle anyway. But if we can do the work in the House, move it to the Senate, then the American public will dictate whether the Senate will move on it. KWAME HOLMAN: House Republican Christopher Shays says members of the Senate are feeling the pressure to take up the issue.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, (R) Connecticut: If you don't think the Senate is concerned about what is happening in the House, then speak to some members who got calls from Senators asking them not to sign this petition. I mean, this is something that is showing up on everyone's radar screen. And I would also say to you that the editorials throughout the country made a gigantic difference in alerting people to what was happening in this Congress. It made a big difference.

KWAME HOLMAN: But the Senate already has considered campaign finance reform twice in the last seven months and lacked the votes to approve any reform legislation.

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