2 Ex-Lawmakers Push Campaign Reform

WASHINGTON — Hoping to prod Congress to pass campaign finance reforms, President Clinton is enlisting two prominent retired politicians to lead a bipartisan “citizens committee” for raising public awareness on the issue, administration sources said Wednesday.

The project will be led by former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, a Democrat, and former Kansas Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, according to several White House sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Clinton plans to announce the effort, and introduce Mondale and Kassebaum Baker as its leaders, at a White House ceremony next week, one of the sources said. The retired Kansas senator and Howard H. Baker Jr., a former White House chief of staff and Republican senator from Tennessee, were married in December.

Kassebaum Baker was said by one of the sources to have reacted warily to the initial White House overture. But the Kansan, a maverick on campaign finance and other issues during her 18 years in the Senate, agreed Wednesday to join the project after being assured it would not be a ploy to divert media attention.