Congress Picks Up Political Football on Eve of Super Bowl

Both parties woo donors as lawmakers take up reform debate

Matthew L. Wald / New York Times 28jan01

Washington -- It is Super Bowl weekend, which means football, parties and, of course, political fund raising.

On Friday, as the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, R-Miss., was promising a debate on legislation to curb the influence of special interest money in politics, a group of Democratic senators was already gathered in Puerto Rico with Washington lobbyists and other donors of at least $15,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Their festivities at the Ritz- Carlton resort in San Juan include a Super Bowl party.

Republicans will have a presence at the game in Tampa, Fla. For the 10th year in a row, the National Republican Congressional Committee offered deep- pocket donors tickets to the game and a chance to rub elbows with congressional leaders, including Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the House speaker, and Thomas Davis III, R-Va., the committee chairman, plus golf, tennis and a tour of the Kennedy Space Center.

The price of the Republican weekend is $10,000 a head, which includes a dinner and the bus ride to the stadium, but not airfare or four nights of hotel accommodations at a Disney hotel in Orlando. The minimum required donation is up, from $6,000 in 1997. Carl M. Forti, a spokesman for the committee, said 150 donors were expected.

Both gatherings were full of lobbyists from the telecommunications, health care and financial industries, all of which have matters before Congress. SBC Communications Inc., based in Houston, sent representatives to the Democratic and the Republican events. Democrats also drew representatives of several big Washington law firms, including Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand,

which lobbies for scores of companies, and Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, which also has a big lobbying practice. The companies represented in Florida with the Republicans included Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Several dozen donors met in Puerto Rico with Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who is the Democratic leader, Patty Murray of Washington, the committee's new chairwoman and chief fund-raiser, Jean Carnahan of Missouri, and Mark Dayton of Minnesota, both newly elected, and Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

The price of the Democrats' event has not changed in recent years; the committee invited donors who annually give $15,000 in hard money, the federally restricted contributions to candidates' campaigns. It also invited donors of $30,000 in soft money, the unrestricted donations to the political parties that advocates of changes in campaign finance are trying to limit.

The cold weather months are prime time for these fund-raising weekends, which both parties have used for years. The House Republicans' Super Bowl weekend is just a warm-up for their much bigger annual weekend for "major donors" at the La Quinta resort in Palm Springs, Calif., which is held each year in February.

For the Super Bowl trip, the House Republicans buy 100 tickets each year from the National Football League and 50 more from various companies that have tickets available, Forti said.

The event raises hard money from contributors who have not yet given their annual limit of $20,000, and soft money from the rest, he said.

Advocates of changes in campaign finance law have long criticized these weekends as examples of how special interests get access to important lawmakers. Typically, the weekends include issue briefings with members of the House or Senate followed by golf or tennis. Then the donors and the lawmakers usually come together again for dinner.

Daniel J. Mattoon, a lobbyist for BellSouth, said there was no party line on whom to root for in the Super Bowl.

"Even if the Redskins are playing, I don't know if it would be unanimous," he said.