Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain brought his crusade for campaign finance reform to his target crowd--youth voters--at a well-attended town meeting at the Institute of Politics Friday.

The lack of finance reform has weakened politics, said the three-term senator from Arizona, making it one of the factors that has made young voters apathetic.

"If money is free speech," McCain told the college-age crowd, "then the special interests are in the front row with megaphones, and you're back there whispering."

McCain said he is convinced that by reforming the way elections are financed and "giving government back to the people," he can restore young people's faith in American democracy.

He established a tenuous link between his themes of low youth voter turnout and campaign finance reform as he referred to the 1996 presidential campaign.

In that year, both Democrats' and Republicans' alleged violations of campaign finance contributions turned young voters off to politics, McCain said, citing that 1996 voter turnout among 18-to-26-year-olds was the lowest since 18-year-olds won the right to vote.

Dealing with a possible consequence of his campaign finance reform proposal, McCain responded to charges by Republican presidential frontrunner and Texas Gov. George W. Bush that it would give an unfair advantage to the Democratic Party.

The bill is aimed at ending "soft money," directed toward national party organizations rather than specific campaigns.