The Sound of Cha-Ching! Still Music to Reformers’ Ears

As they break from their battle to restrain the influence of big money in politics, senators are barnstorming the country this weekend--and making a key stop in Southern California--to collect the very kind of big-check contributions they might soon vote to render illegal.

Tonight in a hillside enclave overlooking Beverly Hills, a dozen Democratic senators supporting the reform movement expect to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars at an exclusive dinner in the mansion of billionaire television executive Haim Saban.

The event is just one stop on a whirlwind, four-city tour for Democratic leaders this weekend, and yet another cha-ching! of the congressional cash register that has kept ringing right through this week’s Senate debate on campaign finance reform.

To critics--and even some contributors--such full-speed-ahead fund-raising underscores the flaws that the reform legislation aims to fix.

“It tells us how perverted and flawed the system is for financing our elections,” said Andy Spahn, head of corporate affairs for DreamWorks SKG. DreamWorks co-founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen have raised millions of dollars for Democrats. Politicians, Spahn said, have “to raise money almost every day in order to have any realistic chance” to remain in office.

Indeed, many of the lawmakers involved in this weekend’s scramble say they have no choice.

‘We Have to Play By the Rules of the Game’

Raising money “is the worst part of what I do,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), one of the senators scheduled to attend tonight’s event. “But we have to play by the rules of the game. Until they change, I will.”

For the first time in a generation, such change may be in the offing, as the Senate on Monday resumes its deliberations on a reform bill proposed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.). The measure’s central feature would ban so-called soft-money contributions--the unlimited funds that parties collect from corporations, labor unions and other well-heeled donors.

Meant to pay for general party operations, the money increasingly is used to pay for television ads that all but endorse individual candidates. And soft-money donations are among the contributions that the Democratic senators are seeking at this weekend’s events.

McCain and Feingold appeared to hold their fragile coalition of supporters together this week, fending off a series of amendments that might have threatened passage of their bill.

But McCain acknowledged Friday that much thornier issues loom next week: expected amendments that would set a ceiling on soft money instead of banning it, raise limits on direct contributions to candidates and toss the entire reform measure out if even a portion of it is overturned by courts.

The Senate’s freewheeling debate has called attention to a corner of political life that candidates usually prefer to shield from the public. But it hasn’t prompted members to ease up on their fund-raising schedules.

Dozens of events took place in Washington this week and are planned for the next, as senators take advantage of almost every break in floor action to dash off to receptions, lunches and dinners where lobbyists and other donors pay $1,000 and up for their tickets.

At lunchtime Thursday, black luxury cars and huge sport-utility vehicles lined up outside the headquarters of the National Republican Senatorial Committee just blocks from the Capitol. Invitations to the event urged donors to chip in $1,000 apiece “to welcome the arrival of spring and retire the campaign debt” of Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who won reelection in November.

The dozens of lobbyists who showed up got time with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and others. It was a crowd largely skeptical of, or indifferent to, the push for reform.

Campaign finance reform “is like a water balloon,” said Bob Rusbuldt, executive vice president of the Independent Insurance Agents of America Inc. “You push down on one side, it will come up on the other.”

The Republican fund-raising schedule only picks up steam next week. Lott and other party leaders plan an evening reception for Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma on Tuesday, another evening event for Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Wednesday and a lunchtime fund-raiser for Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico on Thursday.

On Thursday night, House Republicans are to hold one of their biggest fund-raisers of the year, a dinner at the Washington Hilton headlined by Vice President Dick Cheney that is expected to raise more than $6 million for the party, much of it soft money.

Members of both houses also continued to flock to party offices this week to make fund-raising calls that they are not allowed to make from their government desks.

“It hasn’t slowed down,” said one senior GOP aide, who asked not to be identified when discussing fund-raising activities. He added that most members don’t believe that voters are particularly bothered by the incessant fund-raising or that they will hold it against senators who vote against reform.

“Nobody has ever lost an election because of a vote on campaign finance reform,” the aide said. “The media is fixated on the issue, but voters are not.”

The amount of soft money raised by the parties has soared in recent years, hitting nearly half a billion dollars last year, compared with $263 million in 1996. Some experts believe that without reform the two-party total could surpass $1 billion four years from now.

With the Senate deadlocked at 50 members from each party, the soft-money race is already intense for the 2002 elections. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has raised $10.8 million so far this year, while the Democratic committee has raised $4.46 million.

Narrowing that gap is the object of the Democrats’ four-city swing this weekend. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and nine of his colleagues expect to raise at least $1 million in soft money and other contributions during stops in Chicago; Austin, Texas; and Billings, Mont. The contingent will be joined by Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California at Saban’s home.

Saban, who owns half of the Fox Family cable channel and produced such children’s shows as “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” contributed more than $1 million in soft money to the Democratic Party last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Others planning to attend the event include real estate billionaire Eli Broad and radio industry titan Norm Pattiz, founder and chairman of the Westwood One Radio Network.

Pattiz, who gave more than $300,000 to Democrats in the last election cycle, said he won’t miss writing big checks if the McCain-Feingold bill becomes law. “I’ve got plenty of other things to do with my money.”

But even if the checks they write have fewer zeros, Pattiz and major donors like him will still be leaned on to hold fund-raisers and twist the arms of their well-heeled friends.

“You’ll still look to people who are wealthy,” Boxer said, “because they have friends who can help you.”