WASHINGTON – At the beginning of the Senate’s two-week debate on campaign finance reform, Sen. Olympia Snowe has a lot at stake.

A pivotal player in campaign finance issues in the Senate, Snowe authored a major portion of the latest version of the McCain-Feingold-Cochran bill.

Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins detailed the importance of a soft money ban when both spoke on the Senate floor on the debate’s first day.

In a 45-minute speech on the Senate floor, Snowe tackled sham issue advertising – an ever-burgeoning segment of electioneering and the crux of her joint provision with Vermont Republican James Jeffords.

“These advertisements constitute campaigning every bit as much as any advertisement run by candidates themselves,” Snowe told the Senate. “Inclusion of this language does not make this a perfect bill, but it does go a long way toward instituting fair and balanced reform that does not close one loophole while opening another.”

In the 1996 elections, nearly $100 million was dished out by groups not associated with candidates’ campaigns to run radio and television advertisements attempting to influence federal elections. The AFL-CIO, for example, spent $25 million.

In the last election cycle, an excess of $408 million was spent on issue ads, the Annenberg Public Policy Center estimates.

“That phenomenon continues to go unchecked and will continue to go unchecked if we turn a blind eye to reality,” Snowe said.

The provision pushes for disclosure of groups and individuals that run ads mentioning the name of a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary and 60 days of a general election. Snowe touts a high disclosure threshold of $1,000 – five times the contribution amounts candidates are required to disclose.

In addition, the provision prohibits use of union or corporate treasury money to pay for ads.

“It’s clear, it’s common sense, and it’s constitutional,” Snowe said. “It’s not speech rationing, but information – information that the public has the right to know.”

On Monday, campaign finance reform supporters battled to derail the bill’s first challenge by defeating an amendment that would have seriously altered the measure. The first of many proposed amendments was axed when Democrats coaxed three members who had voted in favor of the alteration to switch their votes.

The Snowe-Jeffords provision is expected to face challenges as the debate continues. Snowe first teamed up with Jeffords to push for reform action in 1997.

Leading GOP opponent Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky proclaimed that the masses care little for campaign finance reform.

Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel’s measure to cap, not ban, soft-money donations won the approval of President Bush, who has voiced substantial differences with McCain’s bill.

Collins, the third Republican to cosponsor Arizona Sen. John McCain’s original bill in 1997, showed her allegiance to reform in her own speech Monday, when where she likened her stance on the issues to Mainers’ true sentiments.