Democrats Threaten Donation Probe

The flames of the campaign finance controversy spread from the White House to Capitol Hill on Thursday as Democratic leaders threatened to block funding for a broad investigation of fund-raising irregularities unless reluctant Republicans also agree to schedule action on reform legislation.

“We will not agree to funding, to a date, to anything until we get campaign finance reform,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), escalating a standoff that has stalled the inquiry for weeks and could come to a head next week.

Moreover, Daschle suggested that Democrats will block the investigation if Republicans refuse to enlarge it to include House and Senate fund-raising practices. He made the threat as two key Senate Republicans vowed to limit the scope of the Senate investigation to alleged improprieties in the 1996 presidential campaign.

The partisan jockeying broke out amid fresh signs that the fund-raising controversy is engulfing Capitol Hill as well as the White House. The congressional newspaper Roll Call reported Thursday that three donors at the center of the controversy had given $20,000 to Democratic congressional candidates since 1993, and The Times is reporting today that at least 10 people who have figured in the Democratic National Committee fund-raising controversy have contributed $150,000 to congressional candidates.

“This obviously is a tiger without a leash,” said one Democratic senator who asked not to be identified by name. “No one knows where it is going to bite.”

Republicans dismissed Democrats’ demands for a broad investigation and for a vote on campaign finance reform as delaying tactics designed to stall an inquiry that will shine a harsh spotlight on their party.

“That’s just their excuse to gum up the works,” said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

The immediate issue for the Senate is the size and scope of the fund-raising investigation to be conducted by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

The panel’s chairman, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), has requested $6.5 million for a virtually unlimited investigation into campaign finance practices and potential irregularities in both presidential and congressional races.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) may force a vote next week on the measure providing funding for the investigation. Start-up funding expires today.

Democrats for weeks have been pushing for a smaller budget and a fixed deadline for the probe. Daschle upped the ante Thursday when he threatened a Democratic filibuster of the funding measure if Republicans do not include congressional fund-raising practices in the investigation and set a date for Senate debate on campaign finance legislation.

Lott and other Republicans have said they would not even consider scheduling campaign finance legislation until after the investigation, saying that hearings are needed to diagnose the problem.

Daschle set down his new ultimatum after Santorum and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they intend to oppose Thompson’s request for $6.5 million. They also said they will push for excluding congressional practices from the probe.

McConnell and Santorum serve on the Senate Rules Committee, which normally would vote on the investigation’s budget. Their opposition to Thompson’s request means that it is unlikely to be approved by the panel, whose membership has a 9-7 Republican majority.

Lott used his authority as majority leader late Thursday to bypass the Rules Committee and bring the funding issue directly to the Senate floor for action, possibly as early as Wednesday. He also offered to provide $5.7 million for Thompson’s investigation, still far more than the Democrats want given to the committee.

If the Democrats seek to block the funding request, Lott said in an interview, “they are going to look very bad.”

A key question is whether GOP leaders will be able to bridge divisions within their own ranks about whether the investigation should include congressional practices. Thompson remains committed to examining congressional fund-raising, a committee aide said.

To “haul in” campaign contributors before a congressional committee that is examining possible illegal activities would unfairly “stigmatize” them, McConnell said. “I strongly object to that.”

Santorum added: “Illegal activities should not be a forum for campaign finance reform. To equate the two is unjust and it’s wrong. And it’s what the Democrats want to do. But I’m not going to be a party to that.”

Santorum also said appointment of an independent counsel to probe the matter would somewhat “lessen the need” for congressional investigations. But so far Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has resisted calls--from Democrats as well as Republicans--to do so.

On Thursday, Reno told reporters that she is expanding the departmental task force that is investigating potentially illegal fund-raising practices but that she still does not believe that there is enough evidence to ask for an independent counsel.

“The department is conducting a vigorous, thorough and comprehensive investigation into all the allegations that we have received,” Reno said. “We have a team of experienced career lawyers and FBI agents assigned to the matter. They have been aggressively pursuing it, and they will continue to do so.”

However, senators who recently discussed aspects of the inquiry by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh had a graver view of the investigation.

“It’s deep and it’s disturbing,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), whose committee met with Freeh on Wednesday for a closed-door briefing.

Shelby is now pushing for the attorney general to appoint an independent counsel, based on what he has learned to date.

Times staff writer James Risen contributed to this story.