ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996 TAG: 9607080061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The New York Times
As they seek to cast Bob Dole as a tobacco villain doing the bidding of the cigarette companies that give millions to Republican campaigns, Democratic strategists are being forced to confront their party's own long financial relationship with the tobacco industry.
Last year, the Democratic National Committee accepted $50,000 from Philip Morris; in the decade before 1994, when the Republicans gained control of Congress, Democratic candidates got as much tobacco money for their individual campaigns as did Republicans.
The leader of the Senate's Democratic minority, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, has accepted $20,500 from the tobacco industry since 1986. The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Wendell Ford of Kentucky, has received $77,000, more than any senator except Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who represents one of the nation's biggest tobacco-growing states.
Moreover, Daschle and Ford were among 32 senators of both parties who sent a letter last December to the Food and Drug Administration objecting to its efforts to regulate tobacco, policies pushed by the Clinton administration.
Among the top Democrats in the House, Dick Gephart of Missouri, the minority leader, has received $67,258 since 1986; David Bonior of Michigan, the minority whip, got $53,800; and Vic Fazio of California, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, got $52,050. Only Fazio signed the letter to the FDA.
Democratic strategists have been all but gleeful in the last week as Dole, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has unintentionally elevated tobacco as a campaign issue. He did so by saying, in response to questions from interviewers, that nicotine may not be addictive and that the FDA should not be involved in the regulation of tobacco.
While the tobacco industry has historically made campaign contributions to both Republicans and Democrats - as have most of the nation's major industries - there is no question that the tobacco companies overwhelmingly support Dole and the Republican Party. Since the beginning of 1995, tobacco interests have given $2.1 million to the Republican National Committee and just $78,200 to the Democratic National Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
In presidential election years, the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee become surrogates for their party's presidential candidates, who are strictly limited in what they can raise and spend for their individual campaigns. And the candidates exert enormous influence over the operations of the party committees.
But beyond the difference in numbers, Democratic strategists maintain that there is an essential distinction between the parties and their relationship with tobacco: Republicans are influenced by tobacco money, while Democrats are not.
At a news conference Friday, President Clinton suggested that there is no contradiction in attacking Dole and the Republican Party for taking tobacco money, even though the Democrats take the money, too.
``What I seek to highlight is the difference in our policies,'' the president said. The ``apparent impact'' of tobacco money on Dole, he said, is the former Senate majority leader's repeated opposition to the administration's efforts to restrict the advertising and distribution of tobacco products to children.
``When you see a pattern of contributions and then a dramatic difference in the policies, it is the policies and their impact on the American people that I'm most concerned about,'' Clinton said.
But if the Democrats want to claim the moral high ground, they should give the tobacco money back, said Ann McBride, president of Common Cause, a public-affairs lobbying organization.
``The Democrats have correctly criticized Dole for the huge amounts of political money that have come from tobacco interests, and for his position on nicotine,'' McBride said. ``But the Democrats should not only not take tobacco money in the future, they should give back all the tobacco money they have taken in this election.''
The Democratic National Committee has no plans to either return tobacco money or stop accepting it, said Amy Weiss Toby, a spokeswoman for the committee.
``Our policy is consistent and clear,'' Toby said. ``Contributions have no impact on DNC policy, and there's no better example of that than tobacco. We've worked to reduce the access and appeal of tobacco to children. The Dole campaign and its surrogates act as a surrogate for the tobacco companies.''
Daschle stopped taking tobacco contributions in 1992, his spokeswoman, Molly Rowley, said Friday. Daschle did not object to cracking down on tobacco, she added, but thought the actions should be taken by Congress.
Most Washington offices were closed Friday, and the other Democratic leaders had no immediate response.
Clinton aides hope that voters, especially parents, will view Dole as beholden to the tobacco industry, and his statements on tobacco as anti-family.
``It's an issue that appeals to families, parents, married couples who are thinking about having kids, people for whom this is an everyday worry in their lives,'' said Joe Lockhart, a Clinton campaign spokesman.
``They are people who have a bunch of shared concerns about safety, crime and keeping some sort of control over their families,'' he added. ``The reason people are paying attention to this is because there is such a clear distinction.''
The Clinton campaign has accepted no money from the political action committees of companies or interest groups, including the tobacco industry.
Corporations are barred from making donations to individual campaigns. The political action committees formed by corporations, typically with donations from employees, are limited to $5,000 per candidate.
Since the beginning of 1995, Dole has accepted $25,500 from tobacco company committees and a total of $97,600 since 1979, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Over the decade, tobacco contributions to individual House candidates have been divided about evenly between the parties: $2.3 million to Republicans, $2.1 million to Democrats. In the Senate, Republicans have received $1.2 million, Democrats, $607,000.
But tobacco companies exert their strongest influence with the huge, unlimited donations known as ``soft money'' that corporations may give to political parties, including the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee and the national congressional committees operated by each party.
The Democratic committees, including the House and Senate, have accepted $417,603 since the beginning of 1995, while the Republican committees have accepted $2.8 million. For the last decade, the total is $7 million to Republican Party committees and $1.8 million to Democratic committees, according to figures compiled by Common Cause.
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB