Democrats Push Election-Year Constitution Change

The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday began a long-shot bid at pushing a constitutional amendment that would limit deep-pocketed political campaign donors' influence.

With plenty of politics but very limited prospects of actually changing the Constitution, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the free flow of "shady money" into politics the biggest threat to democracy he's seen. His Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, called efforts to limit campaign spending a tactic to rile up Democrats this election year.

Changing the Constitution is an intentionally difficult process, and leaders from both parties acknowledge that the Democrats' efforts to prohibit super PACs are likely to result in little more than election-year posturing. But Democrats plan to push forward to force Republicans to cast votes on this topic before November's elections.

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