BANKING ON A WINNER.

Looking for influence, gays and lesbians are donating millions of dollars that political parties need to turn the tide in national races this year

On the hot summer night of June 29 in a private home just off 16th Street in the northwest section of Washington, D.C., Brian Steffan found himself sharing a gourmet dinner of lamb, potatoes, and asparagus with Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore. Seated next to the second lady, Steffan shared stories about his hometown of Arlington, Va., and cooed over the dessert platter, which included a delicate mousse and homemade cookies baked by a New York City chef flown in just for the occasion.

"We both joked about how we were going to pay for eating such fattening stuff," Steffan recalls of his conversation with Gore. While the price in pounds may be uncertain, there was a clear premium for attending the soiree: a cool 10 grand, minimum.

The intimate gathering was thrown for the 10 founding members of the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, a group of donors formed this past June. Admission to the elite club: a $10,000 personal check made payable to the Democratic Party or $20,000 of other people's money raised on the party's behalf.

Including the price tag of the dinner with Gore, Steffan estimates he's dished out as much as $25,000 to the Democratic Party in the past four months, including $5,000 for the Barbra Streisand concert during the Democratic national convention in Los Angeles, $1,000 for an August picnic with Al Gore, and $1,000 for Cher's Philadelphia fund-raising concert in September.

Steffan is not alone in digging deep into his pockets to mine money for the Democrats. This election cycle gays and lesbians are forking over a record amount of cash both for individual candidates and for the Democratic Party at large. While the distinction may sound academic, it is critically important.

Federal law limits contributions to individual politicians to $1,000 per person, but the amount of money an individual can give to a political party for "party-building activities" is restricted only by the size of his or her bank account. This year gay and lesbian donors are being very generous.

"I know gays and lesbians are giving more money today than ever before," says Andrew Tobias, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. Tobias estimates that this election at least $5 million in DNC donations can be tagged directly to gay and lesbian contributors. He believes millions more may be going to individual candidates.

By the end of September, membership in the well-heeled Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council swelled to 130 from its original 10 members. Also, before this year, entertainment magnate David Geffen was the single openly gay member of the Jefferson Trust, a group of contributors who give $100,000 or more to the Democratic Party; today, says Tobias, the Jefferson Trust has gays and lesbians "numbering in the double digits." Members include Kathy Levinson, former president of Internet brokerage company E*TRADE, who gave $100,000, and Tim Gill, founder of software company Quark Inc., who dished out $250,000.

The Democratic establishment has taken note of the power of pink money and has organized like never before to take advantage of the formerly untapped wells. Tobias points to the April 11 fundraising dinner at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., as just one example: Fifty patrons, predominantly gay and lesbian, raised $930,000.

The fund-raising fetes are not limited to the Beltway either. On September 27, President Clinton spent three hours in the Dallas home of Charles Marlett, corporate secretary of American Airlines, and his partner, Jim Vasilis, a criminal defense lawyer. The private $5,000-per-plate luncheon, attended overwhelmingly by gay and lesbian donors, netted the DNC $250,000.

Tobias counts at least five such gay and lesbian-targeted fund-misers hosted this election cycle by President Clinton, two by Vice President Al Gore, two by Tipper Gore, and one each by First Lady and Senate candidate Hillary Clinton and vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman. Openly gay congressman Barney Frank threw a similar moneymaker for gay givers in Provincetown, Mass. In addition, this year the DNC for the first time sent out a fund-raising letter aimed directly at gays and lesbians. The letter was penned by Tobias, the DNC's first openly gay officer.

While Republicans have yet to court pink money as aggressively as Democrats, they are no longer rejecting it as Bob Dole did in 1995 when he infamously returned a $1,000 check from the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay GOP organization. "We've seen substantially more money coming in this year" from gay and lesbian Republicans, says Log Cabin spokesman Kevin Ivers. In 1996 the group handed out about $56,000 to supportive candidates, and this year it raised $40,000 for Sen. John McCain's duel with George W. Bush in the Republican primaries. Ivers declined to put a figure on how much the group hopes to raise this year, but Log Cabin executive director Rich Tafel had previously placed the number at about $200,000.

Furthermore, "we're getting more Republican candidates turning to us" for endorsements and financial support, says Ivers. He defends the Republican Party's lack of organized gay and lesbian fund-raising by saying it arises from a philosophical difference between Republicans and Democrats. "There's no Republican money machine built around groups identified through victim status," he says.

Democratic contributors are clear about the impetus behind their munificence. "It's a survival analysis," asserts Claire Lucas, a 37-year-old economist in Washington, D.C., and cochair of the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council. Though Lucas previously contributed to individual candidates, this marks the first year she has doled out cash to the DNC. "Up for grabs is control of the Supreme Court for the next 25 years," she says.

Steffan cites additional concerns, such as the desire for federal hate-crimes legislation and passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as motivation for his check writing. "This is an investment in the [gay and lesbian civil rights] movement," he says.

Tobias insists the Democratic Party would support gay and lesbian interests regardless of the money flow. "But there's no question that being able to help pay for the meal gives us a place at the table," he says.

Not all activists are so sure, however. "It's not like we're getting some great bargain here," says Ann Northrop, a lesbian activist in New York City and a Clinton delegate to the 1992 Democratic convention. "Buying a place at the table isn't the same as making policy changes. No one should expect a lot of payback for all these millions. We sell ourselves short, and we're not going to get our money's worth."

"It's an unfortunate corruption of the system that money counts so much," agrees David Mixner, a longtime gay activist who rallied gays and lesbians to give $3.5 million to Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. "But there's no question, our ability to raise money makes us a very serious player in politics." He says this year's fund-raising "in dollar amounts I never dreamed possible" helps gays and lesbians with both parties: It keeps the Democrats from taking them for granted and makes the Republicans sit up and take notice.

In addition to individual contributions, gays and lesbians attempt to influence the elections through such organizations as the Human Rights Campaign, a lobbying group in Washington, D.C. This election cycle, says HRC executive director Elizabeth Birch, the group's political action committee will give about $900,000 to Democrats. Some will be in the form of campaign contributions to individual candidates, and some will go to the DNC. The organization will spend an additional $2.5 million for "field operations" to help Democrats get elected.

HRC will not donate money to the Republican National Committee but will offer approximately $100,000 to supportive Republican candidates. HRC board members and volunteers will pump another $250,000 into Republican campaigns, Birch adds.

"Some people may find this distasteful," prefaces Birch, "but the fact is that politics is rooted in money and votes: Without the money, you won't get the votes and you won't win the power to make changes. There is a direct relationship between raising money and getting out votes to the blossoming of our political issues."

Steffan is counting on that connection. "Sure, the dinners and invitations to the White House and parties with all the bigwigs are nice," he admits. "But I don't want to be just another check writer. The bottom line is that I want this to affect politics."

Dahir has contributed to Time, Redbook, and The Industry Standard.

Find more on gay and lesbian contributions to political campaigns at www.advocate.com