Money Season in Capitol

These final four weeks of the legislative session, leading to the Sept. 10 adjournment, promise a frantic scramble to handle as many as 2,000 bills. And coincidentally--or not--this is the time when legislators keep Sacramento caterers hustling with campaign fund-raising events.

By one count, at least 72 fund-raisers have been scheduled during the final month of the session--breakfasts, luncheons and dinners bearing mind-numbing price tags of $500 to $2,000 a plate. On one day alone, next Wednesday, campaign managers have scheduled 17 fund-raisers. And this isn’t an election year.

Let’s face it, in the heat of summer it’s rain-making time in Sacramento. Legislators are counting on lobbyists to buy most of the tickets on behalf of the special interests they represent--interests that have a lot riding on which bills pass the Legislature and which don’t. The game lets lawmakers know which special-interest groups can be counted on as friends and merit attention when important decisions are made.

With a straight face, legislative leaders say the late-summer fund-raising frenzy is not related to the fact that hundreds of bills face life-or-death decisions in this final period. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) told the San Francisco Chronicle that these are the days when folks interested in buying luncheon tickets happen to be in Sacramento.

Typically, legislative leaders are the biggest fund-raisers, rainmakers who spread the dough around to help fellow party members in tough contests. Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, for instance, held a golf tournament on the Monterey Peninsula shortly before the session resumed; the tab ran from $1,000 to $30,000, which included lodging, meals and a chance to meet Assembly leaders.

This year, with Democrats in control of both the Legislature and the governor’s office, lawmakers are carrying hundreds of bills at the behest of organized labor, trial lawyers, consumer activists and environmental groups. Business interests will be spending a lot more money and effort to kill bills they consider harmful to business than in trying to pass legislation they consider helpful. The smart money says that a contribution might not assure a bill will pass or die but why take the chance?

Sponsors of the 1990 term-limits ballot initiative argued that restricting time in office would rid Sacramento of long-term professional lawmakers with fund-raising prowess and bring in a new breed of citizen politician less intent on holding on to office or currying the favor of the special interests that finance election campaigns. In fact, more legislators are conducting more and costlier fund-raising events than ever, focusing on the very same big contributors who fueled the careers of the old-time pros.

California voters have approved ballot measures to outlaw contributions by lobbyists, but these have been struck down in the courts as a violation of free speech. It will be unclear what power the state has to control such fund-raising until the U.S. Supreme Court decides a Missouri campaign finance law early next year. The court should allow room for state laws that can prohibit the most flagrant fund-raising abuses, those that Sacramento is witnessing this summer.