As early supporters of campaign finance reform, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins were singled out Wednesday by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., as co-sponsors for the effort and credited for their support as instrumental in the long fight for final passage in the Senate.

“Without the two senators from Maine,” Feingold said while introducing them for closing comments during Wednesday’s debate, “we wouldn’t have been able to win this fight here today.”

Collins, who defied her Republican leaders after first taking office in 1997 by supporting campaign finance reform, reminded her colleagues on the Senate floor that she was the third Senate Republican to co-sponsor reform legislation, following John McCain of Arizona and Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

During her floor speech, Collins praised Maine’s strong tradition of public participation in the political process, which “rejects the notion that wealth dictates political discourse. … Maine’s citizens feel as strongly about reforming the campaign finance system as do I.”

Snowe also has been a longtime advocate for revamping the campaign finance laws. In 1994, she bucked her party while serving as a U.S. representative and joined a handful of Republicans in supporting a reform measure largely backed by Democrats.

“This bill reminds me of the old Beatles song, ‘The Long and Winding Road,'” Snowe said Wednesday. “The road to this day has been marked by long stretches of nothingness, interrupted periodically along the way by dangerous curves, rock slides, potholes, jersey barriers – you name it.”

In 1998, Snowe teamed up with Sen. Jim Jeffords, a Vermont independent, to sponsor a key amendment to the McCain-Feingold legislation that seeks to target “sham” political advertising on television and radio. Such broadcast commercials often attack or support candidates while masquerading as nonpartisan issue ads and are paid for by unlimited amounts of unregulated money from corporations, unions and special interest groups that frequently hide their identities.

The Snowe provision seeks to require full disclosure of individual donations for broadcast advertisements that mention a federal candidate in the final 30 days of a primary or 60 days before a general election. It also would ban direct or indirect use of labor union or corporate money for these ads in the same time frame.

Critics of the campaign finance legislation believe the Snowe-Jeffords amendment may be the weakest link in the legislation and may attempt to make it the centerpiece of any constitutional challenge waged by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., who believes the provision violates First Amendment rights to free speech.

“This is an attempt to regulate the equal speech of some to the benefit of others,” McConnell told reporters Wednesday. “The voices of some are quieted to embellish the voice of others and that is what will be the challenge in court.”

Still, Snowe remains confident the legislation will do much to clean up politics and empower the voter.

“I’m proud to say this bill not only closes the soft money loophole for parties, but finally shines a ray of sunshine on these flagrant campaign ads, and requires they be paid for like any other campaign ad – with hard dollars raised not from union dues or corporate treasury money, but from voluntary, individual donations,” Snowe said. “That’s what this is all about: Putting elections back in the hands of individual Americans.”

Collins also takes credit for sponsoring a successful bipartisan amendment with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would require candidates and committees to clearly identify themselves.

“The candidate should be required to stand by his ad and not hide behind a committee that may not include the name of the candidate,” she said.