Firms, Lobbies Helped Provide Funds for Sen. Wilson’s Travels

On March 4, 1988, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) flew home to San Diego to take one of the biggest steps of his political career: opening his campaign for reelection.

By all appearances, it was the usual campaign kickoff extravaganza. Beginning in San Diego, Wilson barnstormed seven California cities, making speeches at every stop.

But what did not come to light until Wilson recently filed his personal financial disclosure report for 1988 was that the first-class fare for the cross-country legs of his trip was paid for by neither his campaign treasury nor his Senate travel account. Instead, it was picked up by General Electric Credit Corp., a GE subsidiary headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

Wilson’s March campaign journey was one of a dozen trips the senator made between Washington and California last year at the expense of various corporations and lobbying groups. In fact, the records show that California’s junior senator clearly has become a leader in a practice employed by some Western-state members of Congress--relying on special interest groups to pay the costs of their routine travel.

What makes the phenomenon so surprising is that the American taxpayers already provide Wilson and other members of Congress with money to travel between the nation’s capital and their home state. Moreover, campaign trips paid for by special interests tread dangerously close to federal laws that forbid congressional candidates from receiving free services from corporations.

In order to prevent rich corporations from buying elections, federal law prohibits candidates from accepting corporate money, either directly or indirectly. But members of Congress seeking reelection can take corporate money or services for specific appearances as long as they can demonstrate that the event was separate from their campaign. Thus Wilson’s GE-paid air fare was legal because he delivered a speech to the group during his 10-day trip to California.

According to Wilson’s aides, the senator often prefers to travel back and forth between Washington and California at the expense of special interest groups when possible because it permits him to use his $95,000-a-year official congressional expense account for other purposes--such as paying the expenses of aides who want to accompany him on these trips.

“It’s an opportunity not to use taxpayers’ money,” said Bill Livingston, Wilson’s press secretary. “It’s an opportunity to stretch the funds so he can go out to the state more often. If we had unlimited amounts of tax money, we’d never have to worry about this.”

But critics view this practice as another way that special interests have found to ingratiate themselves to members of Congress by picking up the tab for everything from a meal to exotic foreign trips--a system that Common Cause President Fred Wertheimer describes as “legalized corruption.”

Privately, Washington lobbyists for big special interest groups and major corporations report that they often receive telephone calls from congressional staffers who are soliciting free transportation for their bosses to the home district or other locations. Congressional aides refer to this practice as “prospecting.” In exchange for free transportation, members of Congress are usually willing to make a brief speech or take a plant tour.

It is not clear whether Wilson or his staff actively solicited any of his free trips during 1988. Linda Royster, Wilson’s assistant press secretary, said the senator now has a policy against soliciting such trips, but she acknowledged that “it has not always been the policy,” and she was unable to say exactly when the change occurred.

Several companies or groups that funded Wilson’s travel said they offered to pay the air fare or could not remember how it was agreed to. A representative of General Electric Credit Corp. declined to discuss how the March 4-14 trip was arranged.

Many members of Congress accept invitations from special interests to make speeches in such popular vacation spots as Jamaica, Boca Raton, Fla., and Palm Springs. Usually, these trips are nothing more than thinly disguised vacations for members of Congress and their spouses.

But most members of Congress do not regularly accept free trips to their home districts, not only because the government provides the funding for those trips but also because they do not believe that businesses in their home states should be forced to pay for such appearances.

Opposite View

But Wilson takes the opposite view from many of his colleagues.

Wilson and his wife spurn free trips to exotic places as unseemly. At the same time, Wilson sees nothing wrong with accepting travel expenses and honorariums from well-heeled, California-based groups as well as others that have chosen to gather in California, because he believes that they can afford it. Livingston noted that Wilson does not demand reimbursement from Californians who cannot.

“California is different from most states,” he added. “California has many Fortune 500 companies, and it doesn’t make a bit of difference to them whether they pay for a speech.”

Among the groups that paid for Wilson to fly to home last year were the California Winegrape Growers, the California Independent Oil Producers, William Lyon University of San Diego, the Merchants and Manufacturers of California and the Oakland-based Western States Meat Assn.

Although other Californians, such as Reps. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), Norman D. Shumway (R-Stockton), Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) and Howard Berman (D-Los Angeles), also reported making trips home to California at the expense of special interests during 1988, none of them did it nearly as often as Wilson.

Corporations or lobbying groups paid for more than a third of Wilson’s 32 round-trips between Washington and California in 1988. By comparison, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) made three such round trips in 1988--one financed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, another by the Center for Participation in Democracy and one by a voter-registration organization that Cranston leads.

In most cases, Wilson delivered a speech in exchange for his air fare. But Wilson’s aides said he did not make a speech in exchange for taking a free flight, along with his wife, back to California aboard a private Beech Aircraft plane after the couple attended the Republican National Convention in New Orleans last August.

Wilson’s aides said the plane stopped briefly at Wichita, Kan., where Beech is headquartered, to allow the senator and his wife to tour the aircraft plant and have lunch with a high-ranking company officials.

Wilson, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, refused to accept the offer of a $2,000 honorarium from Beech for the stop. It is not unusual for members of Congress to be offered honorariums for simply touring a plant.

Livingston said the senator does not take honorariums from defense contractors because it would create “a perception” that they are buying his vote on the committee. Nevertheless, he acknowledged, Wilson has no policy against accepting air fare from defense contractors because the cost otherwise would fall on the taxpayers.

In a letter written to Beech after Wilson’s visit to Wichita, Ira H. Goldman, the senator’s counsel, explained to company officials that the air fare for the senator and his wife did not constitute an illegal campaign contribution because it was not undertaken--in the language of the law--”in connection with a federal election.” Instead, he said, even though Wilson was a candidate for reelection, the trip was intended only “to familiarize himself with your company’s operations and engage in discussions with a group of corporate employees.”

Exemption Would Apply

In addition, Goldman noted that the law exempts travel expenses paid in connection with an appearance for which a senator receives an honorarium. He said this exemption would apply to Wilson’s trip, even though he declined the honorarium.

Whenever corporations are involved in financing portions of a campaign trip for Wilson, as General Electric Credit Corp. did in March, 1988, the senator’s staff takes special precautions not to violate the law prohibiting corporations from making in-kind contributions to congressional candidates. Such payments are legal as long as the corporation or lobbying group does not pay for any leg of the trip immediately preceding a campaign stop.

On March 4, 1988, for example, General Electric Credit Corp. paid for Wilson to fly only as far as Reno, Nev.--where he stopped to give a speech to the California Medical Assn.--but his campaign treasury picked up the air fare for the final leg of the journey into San Diego, where he kicked off his reelection campaign. Wilson’s wife preceded him to California on March 3, also at the expense of GE.

Then, as Wilson barnstormed the state beginning on Sunday, March 7, each of those flights was charged either to the campaign or to Wilson’s Senate expense account. In fact, it was not until March 9, when Wilson arrived in Los Angeles, that he met with the group that paid for his round-trip air fare from Washington to California, the General Electric Credit Corp.

Wilson and his wife returned to Washington together on March 14.

Clearly, this complex system for allocating the costs of Wilson’s many trips creates an accounting nightmare for his staff, and mistakes are possible.

In fact, Wilson’s staff reported that he had received a $1,039 government reimbursement for one Washington-to-California round-trip in January, 1988, for which he also reported receiving an honorarium and reimbursement from a Los Angeles-based investment firm, Capitol Group Inc.

But Livingston said that Wilson’s accountant mistakenly credited the government reimbursement to that trip--a mistake he said would be corrected. Furthermore, he said the check that Wilson received for $1,039 represents an automatic travel payment that every senator receives from the government at the beginning of every session of Congress, even if the senator never left Washington.

Government Expense

According to Livingston, Wilson’s reliance on special-interest money for travel to California enables him to return to the state more frequently and to take his aides with him whenever necessary. Records show at least three employees of Wilson’s Washington office were traveling in California at government expense during the senator’s March campaign swing.

In 1988, Wilson received a total of $1.9 million from the government to run his offices in Washington and California--all but $95,000 of it earmarked for staff salaries. In addition, the National Republican Campaign Committee provided him with $20,597 for media, publications and support services.

The amount of government money available to members of Congress for travel and other expenses is based on the distance between Washington and their home states. The sum of $95,000 a year allocated for California’s senators compares to $137,000 set aside for those from Alaska and $36,000 for those from Delaware.

FARES PAID BY LOBBYING GROUPS

Here is a list of Sen. Pete Wilson’s 1988 home-state visits paid for by lobbying groups or corporations: Round-trip air fare from Washington to Los Angeles for senator and wife, Jan. 10-21, paid for by the Capitol Group Inc., an investment firm based in Los Angeles.

Air fare for senator from Washington to San Diego on Feb. 7 and return fare from Los Angeles to Washington on Feb. 15, paid for by Merchants and Manufacturers, an employer group based in Los Angeles.

Air fare for senator and spouse from St. Louis to San Diego on Feb. 19 and from San Diego to Washington on Feb. 22, provided by California Winegrape Growers.

Air fare for senator from Washington to San Francisco on Feb. 26 and return fare from Palm Springs to Washington on Feb. 27, provided by Western States Meat Assn.

Air fare from Washington to Los Angeles on March 3 for wife and from Washington to Reno on March 4 for senator and return for both from San Francisco to Washington on March 14, paid by General Electric Credit Corp.

Round-trip air fare from Washington to San Diego, April 22-25, paid for by California Independent Oil Producers Assn.

Round-trip air fare for wife and one-way for senator from Washington to Los Angeles, April 29-May 9, paid for by AT&T; Corp. of Orlando, Fla.

Round-trip air fare for senator and one way for wife from Washington to Los Angeles, May 27-June 8, paid by Littler, Mendleson, Fastiff & Tichy of San Francisco.

Round-trip air fare for senator from Washington to Orange County, July 8-10, paid by the Independent Cities Assn. of Sherman Oaks.

Round-trip air fare for senator and wife from Washington to Los Angeles, July 15-25, paid for by Fleishman Hilliard Inc. of Washington.

Round-trip air fare for senator from Washington to Los Angeles, Sept. 16-18, paid for by William Lyon University of San Diego.

One-way air fare for senator and wife from Republican National Convention in New Orleans to Orange County with a stop in Wichita, Kan., paid for by Beech Aircraft Corp.