Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 10, 1995 TAG: 9510100086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
This year's General Assembly election has been framed as a battle to the death between entrenched Democrats and upstart Republicans.
That's not how the state's powerful corporate lobbyists see things.
To law firms, banks, utilities, the medical industry and other business interests, the November election is simply another opportunity to consolidate their access to the state's lawmaking process.
The surest way to gain access is to invest in candidates already in a position to return favors. That's why the most active companies and business-related political action committees have given at least 95 percent of their money to sitting lawmakers, according to a Roanoke Times computer analysis of campaign contributions.
In turn, incumbents have come to depend on the same interests that are seeking to influence them. Sitting lawmakers look to the business community for nearly half of their campaign contributions, the newspaper's analysis shows.
This marriage between political and corporate power worries campaign reform advocates who argue that, even if control of the legislative branch shifts from Democrats to Republicans, some things will not change. "It will be the same old gang: the developers, the doctors, the utilities," said Julie Lapham, executive director of the Virginia chapter of Common Cause, a citizens lobby.
Josh Goldstein, research director for the nonpartisan National Library on Money and Politics in Washington, D.C., said last fall's GOP takeover of Congress created an unmistakable shift in policies and priorities, but it did nothing to alter the basic dynamic between money and power.
"It's not a question of Democrats versus Republicans or conservatives versus liberals. It's all about incumbency and power," Goldstein said. "It tends to leave ordinary citizens on the sidelines."
In Virginia, lawmakers and business lobbyists say there's nothing improper about the state's political-corporate alliance. Politicians say that the corporate cash, food and drink that flow their way do not cloud their perspective or influence their decisions. Business lobbyists insist their money buys nothing more than access, a chance to make their case.
There is no quid pro quo, both sides insist.
But one lobbyist acknowledged that his group - the Virginia Manufactured Housing Association - gave money to incumbents this year as a payback for an assembly-approved mobile home bill.
The legislation prevents localities from keeping single-wide mobile homes out of agricultural areas that adjoin fast-growing suburban areas. Ron Dunlop, the association's executive director, said the new law is expected to increase mobile home sales by 10 percent over the next five years.
The trade group beefed up its campaign giving this year, contributing $36,325 in the first nine months of this year and vaulting onto the Top 10 list of corporate givers.
"I hate to use this word," Dunlop said, "but it was thanking them for supporting us. We wanted to let them know that we appreciated their help."
There is plenty of corporate money to go around this year. The top 25 companies and business-related PACs have given more than $800,000 in direct contributions this year. That figure does not include corporate money filtered through the two political parties and PACs like one headed by Republican Gov. George Allen.
The top-spending special interests are looking to protect their markets or expand into new ones.
nThere are utilities: Virginia Power Corp. and Appalachian Power Co. are looking to protect their franchises in case Congress opens the door to competition among power providers.
nThere are players in health care reform: Hospitals that want to control costs with set guidelines and costs for procedures; insurance companies that want to funnel patients through a set of pre-approved physicians; doctors who want to minimize interference by hospitals and insurance companies in patient care decisions.
nThere are trial attorneys seeking greater leeway in cases involving personal injury, medical malpractice and employment discrimination.
nThere are the state's big law firms looking to gain access for their rooster of business clients.
nThere are banks looking to cut deeper into the markets of insurance companies and brokerage houses.
Because most lawmakers win re-election, companies find the safest investment is with sitting lawmakers. "Corporate donors are the most risk-adverse donors in the world. They do not like to give to a person who is not in a position to help them," said Goldstein of the National Library on Money and Politics.
Businesses also have a more basic interest in returning incumbents to office: Companies have invested thousands of dollars in past campaign contributions and entertainment expenses in their relationship with each legislator.
Mike Toalson, senior vice president of the Virginia Bankers Association, explained why his group has plunked down $46,850 on incumbents and only $1,000 on challengers.
"One of our guiding principles is that we dance with the person who brung us," he said. "If they just have an open door policy to the Virginia Bankers, that's all we expect. Just an opportunity to present our views.
"The last thing we would do would be to support a challenger of an incumbent who has an open-door policy."
Companies that bet on the wrong candidates have plenty of time to make up for misses. After congressional elections last year, business-related PACs that backed Democratic incumbents who lost quickly shifted direction. A Congressional Quarterly study found that the 10 business-related PACs most active after Election Day gave 89 percent of their money to Republicans.
The pattern of corporate giving makes it relatively easy for incumbents to raise money. And it also means that some lawmakers rely heavily on corporate contributions.
Fourteen incumbents have received more than 75 percent of their contributions from companies and business-related PACs, according to the newspaper's computer analysis.
Del. George Heilig, D-Norfolk, is near the top of the list. He is chairman of the House Corporations, Insurance and Banking Committee, which considers legislation ranging from telecommunications reform to utility regulation.
Of the $62,485 that Heilig raised through August, more than 80 percent came from companies and business-related PACs that appear before his committee.
Heilig said he considers the contributions a sign that the business community appreciates his willingness to listen and keep an open mind. "They appreciate what you've done for them in the past and what you'll do in the future," Heilig said. "I don't think that means a close relationship in a bad way between incumbents and business. I think we have a great record of integrity and honesty in government."
Some critics of Virginia's current campaign laws say that big money can drown out average voters.
"If you are a legislator who returns to your office at the end of a long day and finds a stack of phone messages on your desk, which ones are you likely to return? The buddy who gave you one thousand bucks. That's called access," Lapham said.
The public rarely questions the relationship between business and politicians - unless scandal erupts.
In North Carolina, for instance, political contributions by the state's rapidly expanding pork industry went largely unnoticed until citizens started complaining about drinking water contaminated by high-density pig farms. Earlier this year, The News & Observer in Raleigh revealed how political contributions factored into the state's friendly handling of the pork industry.
"I think people now would be nervous about getting these contributions," said Thad Beyle, a University of North Carolina political scientist.
In Virginia, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has not enacted campaign finance reform in the three years since a commission appointed by then-Gov. Douglas Wilder recommended a cap on contributions to statewide and legislative candidates.
Republicans do not address the issue in their "Pledge for Honest Change."
THE 10 MOST GENEROUS PACs
These are the political action committees that have given the most money to this year's General Assembly candidates. Except for the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, they're giving almost exclusively to incumbents - a pattern that favors Democrats, since they're the majority party in the legislature.
1. Virginia Trial Lawyers Association
Group of 2,700 attorneys who represent plaintiffs in actions such as personal injury, medical malpractice and product liability. Seeks to expand plantiff's right to recover damages. Often at odds with business and insurance.
2. Virginia Bankers Association
Represents 200 banks and savings banks. Seeks laws for favorable business climate and, in specific, expanded opportunities for banks to compete in services such as insurance and stock brokerage.
3. Virginia Medical Association
More than 1,500 physicians seeking to counter trend toward managed care. They want to preserve patients' right to visit physician of their choice and to minimize interference by insurance companies in care decisions.
4. Philip Morris, U.S.A.
Works to keep Virginia's cigarette tax the lowest in the nation and to thwart tort reforms that would open the doors to lawsuits from smokers. This major employer also tracks all laws affecting business.
5. Mobil Oil Corp.
With corporate headquarters in Fairfax County, Mobil endeavors to enact and maintain laws affecting taxes, regulation, workers compensation and other business-related topics.
6. Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield
Seeks laws that promote managed care programs that reduce health costs by limiting access to pre-selected groups of primary care physicians. Also seeking to clean up image in wake of revelations that it mistated costs to some policy holders.
7. Virginia Power Co.
Seeks to protect its exclusive franchise in face of proposed federal rules that would allow competing electric providers into its territory. As state's single largest taxpayer, seeks to keep utility taxes at 2 1/2 percent of gross receipts.
8. Virginia Manufactured Housing Assocation
Giving money this year to "thank" lawmakers who this year voted for bill that restricts local governments from banning single-wide mobile homes in agriculturally zoned land. Law could boost sales by 10 percent.
9. Norfolk Southern Corp.
Interested in laws affecting rail transportation. Played a role earlier this year in passing a major tax break for producers of coal, which is the company's bread-and-butter commodity.
10. Virginia Hospital Association
Seeks to control spiraling health care costs by supporting managed care and other organized delivery systems. Supports greater public access to costs and quality of care provided by hospitals and individual physicians.
WHERE THE TOP TEN'S MONEY IS GOING
Democrats $273,875 61.20%
Republicans $173,635 38.80%
by CNB