
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990                   TAG: 9004090262
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SEND WORD: VOTERS WANT CLEAN CONGRESS

NOT SURPRISINGLY, confidence in government, and particularly in Congress, is at an all-time low. How can confidence be restored in the wake of a seemingly unending string of scandals coming out of Washington? The answer lies in a complete overhaul of the way we fund congressional campaigns.

It is clear that special-interest money, most of it funneled through political-action committees, has too much influence over members of Congress. The S&L scandals illustrate how taxpayers get stuck with the bill for a corrupt campaign-financing system.

Congressional leaders have pledged to address the campaign-finance issue soon. Yet with a Congress full of incumbents dependent on special-interest money to keep their seats, it's hard to imagine that a "reform" bill will be anything but a smokescreen that hides business as usual in Washington.

Rep. Jim Olin and the rest of our state delegation need to get the message that voters want a clean Congress. We need legislation that caps campaign spending and gets the dirty money out of elections through a voluntary form of public financing. This isn't a radical idea - it's precisely the system we adopted for presidential elections in the wake of Watergate.

Congress needs to get back to representing voters - not fat-cat contributors. Voters need to demand an end to the corrupting campaign-finance system.\ JAMES L. CHUMLEY JR.\ ROANOKE

by CNB