Dems will try again Thursday to pass campaign finance bill through Senate

Democrats will look to bring up a stalled campaign finance reform bill for another key procedural vote on Thursday.

Jim Manley, a top spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Twitter the Senate would debate the Disclose Act on Wednesday, with an eye toward holding a vote on Thursday.

The legislation, crafted by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), looks to respond to a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year loosening restrictions on corporate and labor spending in elections.

While the legislation enjoys some bipartisan support in the House, Senate Republicans have complained that the bill is a partisan effort to handicap GOP supporters while leaving traditional Democratic groups, like unions, less regulated.

The legislation failed a procedural vote in late July, before senators broke for the August recess. The bill received 57 votes, with 60 senators needed to advance the legislation.

Reid would need to flip at least one Republican vote in order to win this vote. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) was not present for the last vote, but he's expected to vote with the Senate's 40 other GOP members in opposition to the Disclose Act.

Democrats have made a last-minute push to advance the bill in the waning days of their fall session, before they break until the election to campaign.

President Obama hammered Republicans in his weekly radio address this past weekend over their blockade of the bill.

"Now, the special interests want to take Congress back, and return to the days when lobbyists wrote the laws. And a partisan minority in Congress is hoping their defense of these special interests and the status quo will be rewarded with a flood of negative ads against their opponents," he said. "It’s a power grab, pure and simple. They’re hoping they can ride this wave of unchecked influence all the way to victory."