Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510060014
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long
It was dark, and the lights from the swimming pool were casting a blue shimmer through everyone's plastic cocktail glasses.
But in Dimitrios Rerras' eye was the unmistakable sparkle of green.
Greenback green. Each of the two dozen minglers at the Republican's campaign party last week meant at least a $30 donation - small pickings in the modern age of six-figure campaigning, but a blessing nonetheless for a political underdog.
Then, Virginia Beach state Sen. Kenneth Stolle showed up, slapped Rerras on the back, called him a fabulous Republican and planted a $500 check in his hand. And the event became a comparative windfall.
"Hey, that's just terrific," Rerras said, accepting one of the largest single contributions of his campaign.
"Well, I'll do what I can to help Republicans," Stolle blushed.
Try $166,687 worth of help. That's how much cash Stolle has collected for his own re-election; but, since he's unopposed, he's now sharing with other GOP candidates for the General Assembly.
The concept is not a new one: Candidates can spend campaign money on just about anything but personal expenses, so legislators often donate a few thousand excess dollars to their party colleagues in trouble.
But while such intra-party benevolence historically has been little more than a political blip, this year it has become a potent campaign phenomenon. Stolle and a group of unopposed Republican senators, who need just three more seats to control the state Senate, will soon flood Republican coffers with nearly half a million dollars from their own campaign accounts.
The practice has made a handful of sitting legislators - many with designs on leadership positions if their party wins a majority - into influential benefactors like never before. And it has angered some lobbyists and other campaign contributors who say they no longer can be sure just what their donations are supporting.
"It certainly has attracted some attention," said state Sen. Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg, the second-leading fund-raiser among the unopposed GOP senators.
Indeed it has. The Democrats, with 22 members, control the state Senate. But only four are running without opposition.
By contrast, of the 18 Republican senators, 10 face no opposition. But just because they're unopposed doesn't mean they're uninvolved this campaign season. Between them, they've already raised more than $854,000.
By Aug. 31, the most recent campaign finance reports available, they still had almost $475,000 of that on hand. The four uncontested Democrats had less than $60,000 among them.
Legislators without opposition generally need only $5,000 to $10,000 to cover basic expenses, such as sending a few mailings and keeping their offices open. So, like Stolle, Republican senators already have begun to spread the excess around - particularly to four sitting senators facing vigorous challenges.
A computer analysis of campaign finance records shows Republicans already had exchanged almost $33,000 by September. Sens. Robert Calhoun of Alexandria and Edgar Robb of Charlottesville have been the primary beneficiaries. Two other Republican incumbents - Brandon Bell of Roanoke County and Frederick Quayle of Chesapeake - also rank high on the gift list.
Through the end of August, Bell had received $10,500 from his unopposed colleagues - about 15 percent of his total.
In the next six weeks, he and other Republican candidates likely will get thousands more. On the financial report filed by one Republican challenger in Virginia Beach, underneath a $1,000 donation from Norment is the handwritten note "for now."
The unwritten traditional rules of campaign financing seem also to have blurred in the House of Delegates, where unopposed incumbents continue to hold fund-raisers and solicit donations they don't need for themselves. For instance, Del. John Watkins, R-Midlothian, raised $25,000 over the summer, though no one is running against him. Watkins, who has sought leadership positions in the party, distributed more than $6,000 in August among 18 Republican candidates around the state.
"If one of our challengers loses by a point or two, and an incumbent still has $25,000 in the bank, he's going to have a lot of explaining to do," says Rob Catron, Schrock's campaign manager. "This is a once-in-four-years chance, and for some it will be their last chance. It's no time to be cautious."
Says Stolle: "It's put-up or shut-up time."
Many Democrats paint all that election-year largess as simply an effort to buy favor within the party. Insiders know that Norment has an eye on the Senate majority leader post under Republican rule. Current Senate Republican leader Joseph Benedetti of Richmond has plans of his own, and already has contributed to 15 GOP senate candidates.
Others criticize the practice as a form of pseudo-money laundering - a way to skirt reporting requirements by lumping contributions together under one name rather than showing each individual source.
And some of those sources are angry that their generosity is this year being recycled. Supporters of one candidate could be inadvertently supporting another - or helping to defeat someone they like.
"We have a limited number of dollars, and we have to target those dollars very carefully," says Kate Webb, a lobbyist for the Virginia Hospital Association.
"Now, once we give that money over to someone, we don't know where the heck it's going to go."
Some legislators think the same way. When Del. Pete Giesen, R-Augusta, announced his retirement from the General Assembly early this year, he sent a letter to supporters asking their permission to donate his campaign funds to other candidates. Three asked for their contribution to be returned.
"I felt like that was the equitable way to do it," Giesen says. "After all, they gave their money to Pete Giesen, not someone else."
But in a year of such political consequence, most seem more worried about votes than image. "I'm committed to focusing my energies and resources to help Republicans," Norment says. "And, yes, that means a commitment from my campaign treasury as well."
In fact, Norment, Stolle and others say they began telling supporters months ago that their contributions likely would be used to help other Republicans. The senators raised money assuming they would have to campaign for re-election and didn't realize until late spring they would be unopposed. So they make no apologies.
Besides, Republicans hardly have cornered the market on pools of partisan cash. Democratic political action committees and party organizations had some $600,000 available at the end of last month and have likewise begun distributing it among needy candidates.
Several House members with large treasuries - such as House Speaker Thomas Moss of Norfolk and Alan Diamonstein of Newport News - also have used some of their funds to win the state, not just their own races.
Moss donated $10,000 to Ed Plunkett, an Augusta County Democrat trying to unseat Del. Vance Wilkins of Amherst. The Republican leader in the House, Wilkins likely would replace Moss as speaker under GOP rule.
But Republicans have more candidates than the Democrats this year, forcing many Democratic heavyweights to spend money in their own districts. In some long-shot districts, Republicans acknowledge privately, candidates were offered money to force the Democrats to spend money, not out of hopes of winning.
And in races often characterized more by the local concerns than statewide ideology, a few thousand dollars for extra fliers, signs and radio advertisements can make the difference.
That's why Virginia Beach Del. Glenn Croshaw, the unopposed Democrat with the most contributions, says he plans to distribute a portion of his $90,000 to a few races in and around his home base in Hampton Roads. But just a portion. Democrats have been quicker to criticize the practice than Republicans, but they also have far less money available to spread around.
"I don't think people would mind me giving money to someone who has helped me accomplish things in the General Assembly - someone with a similar philosophy," Croshaw says.
"But to give it away to everyone in the party regardless of their views? I don't think people would appreciate that. It's a decision each candidate can make, but I don't feel comfortable with that."
Staff writer Dan Casey contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB