ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090113
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
NEED A good laugh? Count on state lawmakers.
How many times have they self-righteously huffed that their votes and influence ``can't be bought'' by gifts to their political campaigns, and taken solemn umbrage that anyone might suspect, much less suggest, such a thing?
Well, state senators now have as much as admitted that they don't trust themselves not to sell out.
To resist the temptations of the casino-gambling industry's deep pockets, they've passed a bill forbidding the industry from giving them campaign contributions.
It's a joke, right?
No, apparently the senators are serious in their concern about the potentially corrosive effects of big campaign gifts to statewide and legislative candidates.
We share their concern. We also think the General Assembly should defeat proposals to allow riverboat-gambling casinos in Virginia.
But why, for Pete's sake, ban contributions from gambling interests only?
Senators' unease may be heightened by the corruption often associated with this particular industry in other states. But excluding one lobby from the auctioning of influence is not only constitutionally iffy. It begs - no, screams - the question: Why exempt from any restriction the gifts of all other special interests that also can and do diminish government's integrity and the public trust?
It's not as though well-heeled lobbyists for such interests haven't leaned on state lawmakers year after profitable year to advance their narrow agendas.
Oh, sure, the Senate next will pass measures prohibiting contributions from the cigarette industry, whose products kill 400,000 Americans a year - not to mention the gun lobby. What do you want to bet?
For that matter, if lawmakers detect a bad smell in the casinos' money, they could simply refuse to accept it. We've heard of no instances where gambling-industry lobbyists held a gun to lawmakers' heads and forced them to take donations.
Better yet, the General Assembly could deodorize Virginia's entire odiferous campaign-finance system by putting a limit on the amount of contributions that wealthy individuals, corporations and political-action committees can make to any one candidate's campaign.
There's no such limit now.
Serious campaign-finance reform would be more sensible, if less laughable, than legislators' trying to relieve concerns about their vulnerability to being bought by pretending that only one industry is an interested buyer.
What, after all, are the other lobbyists handing out cash for - or are the senators suggesting they're all wasting their money?
The Senate's bill now is before the House of Delegates. If the House can't rewrite it into a reasonable contribution-limit measure, the delegates ought to kill it, and stop the joking around.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB