Congress has adjourned after once again failing to enact campaign finance reform; the 2000 election is shaping up as one more dreary money-drenched season of 30-second attacks ads and blurbs of happy talk, of growing public cynicism and declining voter turnouts.

Since lawmakers will not address the obvious link between money, politics and policy, the Washington-based non-partisan advocacy group Alliance for Better Campaigns is trying a new approach — campaign reform, with the finance part left for another day.

The alliance’s idea is to get television broadcasters to devote, voluntarily, five minutes of air time each evening to political issues during the month before the primaries and the month before the election. The time could be used for such things as candidate interviews, extended issue statements or short debates. All legitimate candidates, regardless of wealth, would have a forum and voters would have the chance to see unvarnished candidates without the ad agency sheen.

The alliance launched this initiative last year with efforts in 10 states to build public-service partnerships with broadcasters in elections for state offices and for Congress. The results were mixed. In some states, such as Arizona and Oregon, participation by broadcasters and candidates was good, the project was credited with raising public awareness of referendum question and of races below the top of the ticket. In most other states, however, leading candidates declined to participate and broadcasters used that as an excuse not to donate the air time. Clearly, voters are not the only ones in need of enhanced civics education.

Maine voters are generally well-served by their news media. Local newspapers cover local elections in depth, opinion-page space is free and ample. In the broadcasting realm, the state’s radio and public-access television stations in particular do a commendable job airing candidate debates and question-and-answer sessions. Still, it is unfortunate that voters get a better look at candidates for selectman and school board than they do at candidates for president and Congress.

It is encouraging that those on the giving end of the campaign finance deal are starting to rebel. A growing number of the nation’s leading business executives are flat out calling the contribution requests from the major parties nothing less than extortion.

Just last week, the media giant Time Warner announced it would stop making soft money donations and would put the money into deeper campaign coverage instead. This week, a letter written by former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and former anchorman Walter Cronkite asking broadcasters to help “break the chokehold that money and ads have on our political system” is being printed by the Alliance in major national newspapers and broadcasting trade publications.

Political campaigns will always be rough, bare-knuckled, hype-filled affairs, but the increasing alienation and mistrust the public feels toward government must not continue. Five minutes of ideas is not a complete cure, but it can undo some of the damage done by 30 seconds that are about nothing but money.