NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Senate on Monday amended a House campaign finance bill to allow doubling the campaign cash that individual donors, special interest political action committees and political parties can give senators during their four-year terms.
Twenty-six Republicans and a lone Democrat easily pushed the amended bill through on a 27-2 vote.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeff Yarbro of Nashville questioned the increases over what some Senate Republicans described as a "parity" measure.
"While I'd love to raise more money, I don't think the people of Tennessee would want us to raise basically three quarters of a million dollars from [political] parties and PACs," Yarbro said.
The bill began as a House GOP effort to let representatives and senators create a loophole in the state's long-standing in-session ban on fundraising and sought to let members raise political money during veto-override sessions.
But in committee, senators added a provision allowing their contribution limits to reset every two years, instead of every four years as the law has long directed.
Sen. Ken Yager, chairman of the Senate State and Local Government Committee who handled the bill on the floor, said in response to Yarbro's questions that the issue was "parity."
With Yarbro noting that the bill would effectively raise the total caps on all PAC money from the current $236,200 in a four-year campaign cycle to $472,400 and political party money from $126,000 per cycle to $252,000, Yager referred other questions to Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown.
Southerland offered the justification that senators have three times the residents in their districts as House members.
The bill also raises individual donors' contribution limit over the four-year period from the current $3,000 to $6,000 and for individual PACs from $23,600 to $47,200.
Sens. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga; Bo Watson, R-Hixson; Mike Bell, R-Riceville; and Yager voted for the legislation. Joining Republicans was Sen. Thelma Harper, D-Nashville.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.