Politico

The two men tapped to lead President-elect Barack Obama’s review of the Treasury Department bring wide-ranging political connections along with significant experience in economic and financial matters.

Josh Gotbaum, in particular, brings a rich mix of private and public experience: almost three decades of financial and management experience both in the private sector and the federal government.

The announcement from Obama’s transition office said Gotbaum is currently serving “as an adviser to investment funds, with a special focus on restructurings and management turnaround.”

He is currently listed as operating partner for New York hedge fund Blue Wolf Capital, and his private sector resume includes overseeing the highly successful reorganization of Hawaiian Airlines as its Chapter 11 trustee from 2003 to 2005, and serving as the first chief executive officer of the September 11th Fund, a charity formed the day of the terrorist attacks to help victims and the community.

Early in his career, Gotbaum, who has both a master’s and law degree from Harvard University – was a partner and managing director of New York investment bank Lazard Freres & Co.

Gotbaum, whose family is well known in New York City political circles, also boasts a hefty list of federal policy jobs, including a turn in the Clinton Treasury Department.

In the Clinton years, he served as assistant secretary of defense for economic security, assistant secretary of Treasury for economic policy under then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and as executive associate director and controller of the White House Office of Management and Budget. And he served on President Jimmy Carter’s domestic policy staff.

Gotbaum’s father Victor was a major New York City labor leader, and his stepmother Betsy Gotbaum has served as New York City’s public advocate since 2001.

Gotbaum donated $1,000 to Obama’s campaign in August, according to Center for Responsive Politics.

The second Treasury team leader, Michael Warren, hails from Stonebridge International, a global consulting firm and lobbying shop for multinational corporations, financial institutions and non-profit organizations. Its clients include Airbus North America and the U.S.-India Business Council.

Warren isn’t registered as a federal lobbyist, and Obama’s transition team said he is taking a temporary leave of absence from his post as the firm’s chief operating officer and managing director. He gave $500 to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) during the Democratic primaries and $2,300 to Obama in June.

Stonebridge is laced with some heavy-weight and bipartisan political connections. Former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger is a co-chairman and co-founder. Former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), who was an economic adviser to John McCain, is the firm’s other co-chairman. And U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue sits on its advisory board.

Warren has his own Clinton administration credentials, having served as executive director of the National Economic Counsel during Clinton’s second term.

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This list is circulating among Washington’s lobbyists and power players. Not surprisingly, some of Obama’s closest advisers, such as former Sen. Tom Daschle, are making it in multiple spots. We’re not sure who put it together, but we got it from K Street, and it even comes with graphics.

Just more fodder for your parlor games until the real picks are made.

AGRICULTURE: Tom Buis, Charles Stenholm, Jim Leach and Tom Vilsack

COMMERCE: Penny Pritzker and Jason Furman

DEFENSE: Bob Gates, Richard Danzig, John Hamre and Colin Powell

EDUCATION: Colin Powell, Arne Duncan, James Hunt

ENERGY: Phil Sharp and Sen. Jeff Bingaman

HHS: Howard Dean and Tom Daschle

HOMELAND SECURITY: Tim Roemer, Raymond Kelly, James Lee Wit, Richard Clarke, Bill Bratton

HUD: Rep. Jim Clyburn, Shirley Franklin, Valerie Jarrett, Manuel Diaz

INTERIOR: Gov. Bill Richardson, Rep. Jay Inslee, John Leshy, David Hayes, Brian Schweitzer

JUSTICE: Gov. Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder, Rep. Artur Davis

LABOR: Richard Gephardt, David Bonior

STATE: Sen. John Kerry, Richard Holbrooke, Sen. Chuck Hagel, Sam Nunn, Colin Powell

TRANSPORTATION: Steve Heminger

TREASURY: Tim Gethner, Larry Summers, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, Jon Corzine, Robert Rubin

VETERANS AFFAIRS: Max Cleland, Tammy Duckworth, Donna Shalala

EPA: Robert Kennedy Jr., Kathleen McGinty

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: Lael Brainard, Cal Dooley, Thomas (Mac) McLarty, Daniel Tarullo, Michael Wessel

OMB: Daschle

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Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is eyeing the gavel of Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Dingell, 82, has the most seniority of any member of the House. His committee is poised to play a leading role in the Obama administration’s climate change policy, but critics say he’s been too lax on greenhouse gas regulation and too eager to cut breaks for his home-state auto industry. Waxman, 69, is expected to be tougher.

Here’s a quick look at their environmental and energy records:

Dingell

• His committee wrote the Energy Independence and Security Act last year to increase corporate average fuel economy standards by 40 percent, a move that aimed to decrease automobile emissions and boost the competitiveness of the nation’s automobile industry.  

• He wrote the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impact their projects will have before moving forward. The law also established the Council on Environmental Quality.

• He was influential in shaping the Clean Air Act in 1990, which took major steps to reduce air pollution and smog levels.

• He was the original author of the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

• Dingell last month released a draft of a global warming bill for reducing greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, the same reduction goal as President-elect Barack Obama.

Waxman

• He held a series of oversight hearings on the Environmental Protection Agency for denying California’s right to regulate its own tailpipe emissions and silencing scientific findings on global warming.

• He introduced the Safe Climate Act, cap-and-trade legislation that would decrease emissions by 83 percent by 2050.

• He held oversight hearings to determine if the White House had interfered in the work of government climate change scientists.

• He was a primary sponsor of the Clean Air Act.

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Change, change — and more change

Maybe you’ve seen the cardboard boxes, “wet paint” signs or actually heard the doors opening and closing. Ready or not, C-H-A-N-G-E is coming to town — to the White House, Congress and K Street.

Here’s a short Suite Talk list of a few of the changes we’ve heard via the phone or the press releases that have filled our inbox lately:

• Stacey Dion is leaving her post in the office of House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and heading to Boeing Co. Since January 2007, the Catholic University law grad has used her tax law expertise in her role as Boehner’s policy adviser and counsel. Now she’ll be Boeing’s director of corporate public policy.

On Capitol Hill, Dion was involved in negotiating and drafting this year’s Economic Stimulus Act and the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

• Patrick Von Bargen is joining Quinn Gillespie & Associates as director to boost the firm’s capabilities in the energy and financial sectors.

For more than 17 years, he held a number of public policy roles under Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and William Donaldson, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Von Bargen also headed the National Commission on Entrepreneurship and served as vice president of the Council on Competitiveness.

The California native has a master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management. He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University.

• At Tyco International, Catherine Bennett is succeeding Fruzsina Harsanyi, who is retiring at year’s end as vice president of public affairs.

In her new role, Bennett will lead Tyco’s Washington office and be responsible for government affairs and advocacy initiatives at all government levels.

She comes to Tyco from the National Foreign Trade Council, where she was general counsel and in charge of government affairs. She also worked in a variety of capacities at Pfizer’s government relations sector in its Washington office.

• Patricia Power is the new vice president in the Washington office of Bose Public Affairs Group, which is expanding in Washington and Indianapolis.

A lawyer, she hails from the law firm Bose McKinney & Evans, where she has been of counsel. Earlier, she worked for the late Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.) and at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water and Office of Legislation.

• Barry Pollack, the attorney who worked to overturn the conviction of Martin Tankleff in the killing of his parents in New York and who represented Rep. Vito J. Fossella (R-N.Y.) in his drunken driving case in Virginia, has joined Miller & Chevalier in its white-collar and internal investigations practice.

Pollack won the Gideon Champion of Justice award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys for his pro bono work on the Tankleff case.

• Once a seaman, always a seaman. After 35 years in the Navy, retired Vice Adm. Evan “Marty” Chanik is joining Northrop Grumman as vice president of business development for its shipbuilding sector.

Most recently, Chanik was commander of the 2nd Fleet and director of combined joint operations from the Sea Center of Excellence. He also helped the Pentagon decide what weapons — and how many — to buy. And he once was commander of the Northrop Grumman-built USS Enterprise.

• Cash America has added Kevin Kimble as vice president and counsel of federal affairs. Earlier, Mary Jackson, the senior vice president, was splitting her time between Washington and the company’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. With the addition of Kimble, the Washington office will “have someone on the ground all the time,” spokeswoman Yolanda Walker told Suite Talk.

Kimble comes aboard at an interesting time for the fast-cash company, Walker said.

“What we’ve noticed is when the economy shifts, business picks up — but it’s not long-lasting. People adjust their budgets quickly,” she explained. “We are a business. We don’t want a bad economy, since then it’s harder for people to pay back their loans.”

Suite Talk is a regular Politico feature that follows career changes, client developments and other movements in the public affairs sector. Please send news items and photos to suitetalk@politico.com.

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Today’s edition kicks off a new focus by Politico’s Lobbying team on four issues: the economy; defense and security; energy and the environment; and health care. Each Tuesday until the Inauguration, we’ll have the latest news on policy and personnel, with more special coverage planned next year.

Health care groups that embraced pro-reform candidates have wasted no time transforming their massive campaign resources into lobbying drives for comprehensive health care reform.

Health Care for America Now, which by the end of the year will have spent $14.5 million since its launch in July, plans to spend $25 million next year to continue a relentless pro-reform advertising drumbeat. The money will also fund more organizers; the progressive coalition currently has 79 people on the ground in 41 states.

In January, the Service Employees International Union, an early backer of President-elect Barack Obama, will deploy thousands of volunteers and paid staff throughout the country, hoping to top the 5,000 people it enlisted to work for him during the campaign. The group will tap the contact information of the 37 million Americans who have signed up to push for health care reform while working to grow the list to 100 million.

And AARP, which didn’t endorse a candidate but has worked to raise the profile of health care reform, has launched an almost $1 million post-election advertising campaign, which includes Web video, a national advertising buy on cable news, and national and inside-the-Beltway print advertising. The seniors’ lobby is readying a bipartisan, grass-roots push that it hopes will ride the election’s momentum to successful reform.

“We expect leadership to deliver now that there’s been an election based on these issues,” said John Rother, AARP’s executive vice president of policy.

The quick pivot to lobbying is no surprise. The health care reform community has been preparing for the battle for more than a year.

Reformers are cautiously optimistic. After a Democrat-controlled government bungled health care reform 14 years ago, supporters recognize that the start of the Obama era does not guarantee success. It merely provides an opportunity.

“For 100 years, we’ve been trying to enact universal health care coverage, and we’ve failed,” said Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Health Care, which represents the union’s 1.2 million health care workers.

Part of the union’s job, Rivera said, is to convince members of Congress who doubt that health care reform can succeed.

His organization provided more money and volunteers to Obama’s campaign than any other group, he said. And the union plans to redirect that intensity into health care reform.

“We intend to run this as a presidential race, and our candidate is comprehensive health care reform in the United States,” Rivera said.

The group wants Congress and Obama to craft a single reform bill that can be passed in the administration’s first 120 days. And while he wouldn’t provide a figure, Rivera said the organization plans to break its previous spending records to get the job done.

To continue growing its grass roots, SEIU and Health Care for America Now launched a $100,000 online advertising campaign on Election Night.

“You Voted for Obama. You Voted for Health Care,” the ad said, and then provided a place for readers to enter their e-mail addresses and ZIP codes.

The Health Care for America Now coalition is directing the grass-roots power of its 462 member organizations to meet with lawmakers in their home districts. The group is pushing members of Congress to join Obama and some 150 other lawmakers to sign on to the organization’s principles.

“The whole goal of this is to get something done in 2009, and we’ve got the guy in office we needed to do it. So now we’ve got to get started,” said Jacki Schechner, the group’s spokeswoman. “Our job is to be the army behind Obama, saying we can’t afford not to do health care.”

And painting health care as a critical component of righting a listing economy will be a major theme as the various groups work to ensure reform isn’t overshadowed by the economic crisis.

Can Democrats Move Past Hillarycare?

Key Senate committee Chairmen Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are already laying the foundation for a major health care debate in the new year, but they haven’t answered one major question: What to do about Hillary?

Democrats can’t disconnect Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and the idea of universal health care. She is by far the most high-profile advocate for universal health coverage, yet she is also the living symbol of the Democrats’ highest-profile failure on the issue — the 1994 health care debacle when she was first lady.

“After the campaign, people thought she’d be a point person on health care,” said one former Clinton aide. “But now she’s nowhere. What exactly is she doing on the issue? Health care is her baby.”

To be sure, Clinton can’t jump the gun on her committee chairmen — Kennedy at Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, and Baucus at Finance — who want to start the legislating, and she has to be careful not to get too far out ahead of Obama on the issue.

“Sen. Clinton has told her HELP chairman, Sen. Kennedy, as well as [Senate Majority] Leader [Harry] Reid, that she stands ready to help President-elect Obama in any and every way she can to enact comprehensive health care reform, which she has sought for nearly two decades,” her office said in a statement.

And some Clinton folks argue that her presidential campaign — during which she forcefully articulated a vision for universal health coverage — was effective in making people forget 1994.

“Looking back on the campaign, the high-water mark for Clinton was health care — it killed the demons of 1994,” said Phil Singer, who was a Clinton spokesman during the primary campaign.

To get the legislation right, the Obama administration will first need to work behind the scenes, cooperating with Kennedy and Baucus in the Senate, as well as with key House committees.

But once the legislating seems to be on a fast track, Clinton could take a public role, should the new president want her to be an advocate for his health care program.

“She’s laying back now, but she’ll need to establish her turf,” the former Clinton aide said. “She can also go out there and take a few punches for Obama.”

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President-elect Barack Obama may risk some of his newly earned political capital in Georgia, where a Dec. 2 Senate runoff could move Democrats a step closer towards a veto-proof, 60-vote majority in the upper chamber.

The race is between Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Chambliss came out of Election Day ahead of Martin. But he didn’t secure the 50 percent-plus-one-vote margin required under Georgia law, triggering the runoff.

The decision facing Obama is whether to return to the campaign trail and risk a possibly embarrassing political setback just weeks after his historic victory, or remain focused on his transition and hope for the best in the Peach State.

Democratic political strategists are ambivalent about which is the right course.

Clearly having a veto-proof Senate majority would ease Obama’s ability to govern, said Joe Lockhart, a former Clinton White House press secretary. But, he added, “The last thing you want to do is make one of your first fights one that isn’t within your control whether you win or lose.”

Michael Feldman, who was an adviser to Vice President Al Gore, said a “final push” by Obama “could very well make a difference.” But he also noted that Obama already has “a full plate” and “any time and energy that is diverted to politics is time that can’t be spent on preparing to take over the White House.”

The dilemma carries eerie similarities to one Bill Clinton faced in 1992 when Georgia Democratic Sen. Wyche Fowler wound up in a runoff against Republican challenger Paul Coverdell.

The Fowler-Coverdell contest came just weeks after Clinton’s defeat of President George H. W. Bush. Clinton had won Georgia by about 5,000 votes, and Fowler was about 30,000 votes ahead of Coverdell.

Coverdell framed his candidacy as a last stand against Democratic veto-proof majority in the Senate. Clinton and Gore both travelled the state on behalf of Fowler, arguing they needed more allies to implement their agenda.

After a dramatic decline in voter turnout, Fowler wound up losing to the more energized Coverdell camp by about 16,000 votes, and Republicans crowed that it was a signal of Clinton’s already weakened political standing.

Clinton’s allies scoffed at the criticism, but it stung, all the same.

Clinton’s experience and the history of runoffs suggest that Obama’s safest course may be to keep some distance.

Runoff races are notoriously tough for incumbents in Georgia. Of the 83 who faced them from 1970 to 1986, more than half lost.

“Ordinarily, the momentum shifts to the challengers,” said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University. “I think the Martin folks are just delighted to be in a runoff.”

But some analysts, including Black, say Chambliss may be able to beat the odds, since his race is likely to provide a dramatic finish of the historic 2008 campaign.

Democrats emerged from the election with a working majority of 57 votes. Two Senate races, in addition to Georgia, remain undecided. In Alaska, officials are counting absentee ballots. In Minnesota, they are in the midst of a recount.

While party activists can do little to influence the outcome of those two contests, the field is wide open in Georgia, and both sides are aiming to flood it.

“This may be the election of the 60th senator. That nationalizes the contest and raises a different issue from whether Chambliss represented the state in the way his base wanted,” Black said.

Chambliss fell out of favor with Georgia voters for a variety of reasons. But a major blow to his backing came when he supported the $700 billion financial bailout package. All of Georgia’s House Republicans voted against it, and all were easily re-elected.

The freshman senator is hoping to change the subject in the run-off, and he’s bringing in his own marquee names to help.

John McCain is scheduled to make an appearance for Chambliss, and his campaign is reaching out to former vice presidential contender Sarah Palin, as well. Former Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have also been tapped for help.

“We’re looking to the RNC, of course, for help on the ground, the same way I’m sure our opponent will look to the DNC and other such groups for help on the ground. We already have third parties playing in the state,” said Michelle Grasso, a Chambliss spokeswoman.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has ramped up its fundraising operation to funnel cash to the embattled incumbent. “We’ve got staff on the ground, and we are assessing what else we need,” said NRSC spokesman Rebecca Fisher.

Martin’s camp is also scrambling to reinforce its campaign machinery.

Many of Obama’s ground troops are now switching payrolls to Martin’s campaign, an Obama campaign official said. And Martin has used footage of the president-elect in his first run-off ads.

Georgia Democrats are pressing for an Obama visit and hope Michelle Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, or the president-elect himself will also headline a fundraiser.

“We’ve reached out to President-elect Obama and his campaign,” said Martin spokeswoman Kate Hansen. An Obama official said “no commitments” have been made.

According to Black, Obama’s ability to get African-American voters back out to the polls for the runoff could be critical to Martin’s campaign, since turn-out typically declines in runoffs, most strikingly among black voters.

Lockhart and Feldman said Obama may be able to find a middle road – one that goes through the virtual world.

The president-elect could do radio ads for Martin and appear in a commercial promoting his candidacy. In addition, he could employ his formidable Internet lists to reach out more directly to Georgia supporters and urge them to go the polls.

“There are ways for him to be supportive,” Lockhart said, “but I don’t know that he needs to go down and do a four-county tour.”

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The election may be over, but the Sunday talk shows must go on.

CBS’ “Face the Nation” scores the first mega-get of the Obama era, landing the first interview with Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) since Barack Obama named him his White House chief of staff.

Will the congressman offer any clues as to who else will be joining the new administration?

Politico’s John F. Harris and New York Times columnist David Brooks also offer their thoughts on the new administration.

With all eyes now on Obama’s transition, NBC’s “Meet the Press” leads with Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of Obama’s transition team.

Will she offer any hints on Cabinet posts?

Also, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) discuss the incoming Congress.

Finally, moderator Tom Brokaw looks back at Tuesday’s historic election with presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Newsweek’s Jon Meacham and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell.

CNN’s “Late Edition” features interviews with two major players – Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Speculation has been running rampant over the fate of independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. But will Reid offer any pronouncements Sunday?

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair rounds out the CNN lineup, offering his thoughts on Obama’s ascendancy.

“Fox News Sunday” looks at the future of the GOP following another devastating election cycle, with interviews with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), poised to become House minority whip, and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who looks set to take over as chairman of the House Republican Conference.

On ABC, “This Week” also looks back at a momentous week in a roundtable discussion with ABC’s George Will, Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Cynthia Tucker, Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria and former White House adviser David Gergen.

On Bloomberg TV, “Political Capital” host Al Hunt interviews former Clinton presidential adviser and civil rights pioneer Vernon Jordan.

And C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” scores a big get, too, landing the current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to discuss the transition of power.

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Some energy and environmental lobbyists are worried that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial past would thwart his Senate confirmation if President-elect Barack Obama tapped him to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

A well-respected climate lawyer, Kennedy has also been in the spotlight for his controversial environmental statements. Last year, for instance, he said that global warming skeptics should be treated as “traitors,” which garnered the ire of Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, whose deep skepticism about the causes of climate change is well-known.

“Robert Kennedy calling me a traitor would be like me calling Robert Kennedy a patriot,” Inhofe retorted on Fox News.

Inhofe’s committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), would handle Kennedy’s Senate confirmation as EPA administrator if he were nominated by Obama.

Inhofe had no comment. But both Democrats and Republicans say Kennedy’s appointment would make policy compromises difficult.

“This would speak volumes as to where Obama is going with his appointments,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist William Kovacs. “A Kennedy appointment is as liberal as you can possibly get. There is no one [candidate] based firmer in extremes.”

Kennedy was also arrested for heroin possession in the 1980s — a point that will not escape the critical eyes of Senate Republicans eager to block his appointment.

“Considering the times we live in, it seems like everyone of a certain age has had a drug issue,” said Jim DiPeso, policy director for Republicans for Environmental Protection. “There are enough questions senators can ask him about EPA law enforcement that I’d hope they’d just stick to the issues.”

One sticking issue for some environmentalists is Kennedy’s reputation as a NIMBY, a "not in my back yard” supporter of renewable energy.

Kennedy drew the ire of the international environmental group Greenpeace and others after he opposed construction of a wind energy farm off the coast of Cape Cod that would have marred the view from his family’s shoreline home.

“While his rhetoric sometimes runs a little hot, it’s hard to challenge his motives,” said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council. “That said, EPA is an agency with about 20,000 employees and a very complicated mission. It does not lend itself to governance by sound bite. So any administrator will have to resist that temptation.”

Kennedy is a senior attorney with National Resources Defense Council. And its spokeswoman, Julia Bovey, said Friday she’d “really have to laugh at the idea that Bobby’s positions are radical."

"Sure, he’s a strong protector of the environment,” she said, "but his positions and the organizations he’s aligned himself with are very mainstream America."

The Obama transition team was unable to comment.

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After the most expensive presidential campaign in history, campaign finance reformers are trying to salvage the Watergate-era public financing system by proposing substantial changes.

A key passage in the proposed reforms would significantly boost the amounts of money candidates could receive from the taxpayer-backed system. Spending limits would be raised to reflect the modern-day costs of running for office.

Those figures have been adjusted only for inflation since 1974, and their inadequacy was a major reason that major candidates began shunning the system in the past two presidential campaigns.

In this year’s presidential primaries, for instance, candidates who accepted public funding were limited to spending $50 million for the entire nomination fight. Obama, who did not take public money, spent $30 million just in the month of January.

Other legislative changes the reformers will seek include banning joint fund-raising committees and shared advertising budgets between the national parties and their presidential nominees.

They also would require candidates to reveal the names of their bundlers and the amount that each of the surrogate fundraisers generates for the campaign.

The proposed reforms were embodied in legislation introduced in the current Congress with a star-studded list of sponsors.

Among them: the president-elect, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.); the vice president-elect, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.); the incoming White House chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.); and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Reformers say they expect the legislation to be reintroduced in January, on the first day of the new Congress.

The proposed changes are sure to meet stiff opposition from Republicans.

The legislation would make it illegal for future candidates to employ the tactics that the Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, used to compete against Obama and his army of small donors.

McCain, who participated in the presidential fundraising system, stretched his $85 million allotment of taxpayer money for the general election campaign by helping raise money for the Republican National Committee that could be spent on advertising and voter turnout operations.

Fred Wertheimer, head of Democracy 21, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group, acknowledged that “there are not campaign finance fights that aren’t battles, big battles.”

But he pointed to Obama’s campaign pledges to reform the presidential financing system. “I think the stage is set to do this,” Wertheimer said.

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Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) says he’s open to an unusual process of confirming some of Barack Obama’s key economic appointees before Inauguration Day, should the president-elect decide to go that route.

Dodd said that he has suggested such a move to Obama’s transition team, but stressed that it’s “a call for the president-elect to make.”

It’s important for the domestic and international economies that “there’s going to be a seamless transition here on these issues,” Dodd said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “To the extent we can send that message and continue that work during this period, I think would be valuable.”

Dodd mentioned the unprecedented idea several weeks ago, where President Bush would actually nominate the president-elect’s Treasury secretary during this fall’s lame-duck congressional session.

On Thursday, Dodd called the unusual process “interesting,” saying it would allow transition to occur quickly as well as “send an important signal that they’re working together on these issues.” And he urged the Obama team to move quickly in announcing its economic lineup, including Treasury secretary and the chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission.

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