It's the biggest, most far-reaching piece of legislation that the Senate will tackle this summer and its the capstone of Chris Dodd's long career.
So what do the candidates vying to replace Dodd think of the financial reform bill? And how would they vote on the measure?
A quick survey revealed one emphatic "no" (Peter Schiff), one "no" (Linda McMahon) and one qualified "yes" (Dick Blumenthal.)
UPDATE: Late tonight John Mertens contacted me with his view of the bill (I had failed to include him in the initial email blast to the campaigns.)
"The current regulatory bill being debated in Congress does a few good things, but it falls far short. Here's a quote from Douglas Elliott of the Brookings Institution, who supports the bill: "The bill will not eliminate financial crises, but it will make them less frequent and considerably milder, which is all we can realistically accomplish." Mr. Elliott is wrong on that latter point. I would work very hard to include one single, simple piece of legislation that would prevent this kind of financial crisis from happening again: require any lender to keep ownership of a minimum of 30% of any loan they make, for the lifetime of that loan. I've talked to a lot of successful financial sector experts, and they agree with this proposal, and that 30% is the correct number: it would not hinder lending, but it would prevent coercive, risky lending, and it would prevent misrepresentation of the quality of bundled mortgages. This simple law would have prevented the current crisis, and it will prevent future mortgage crises. This is the kind of problem-solving that I offer."
Below are the views of the rest candidates, via their campaign staffs.