Senate GOP opens door for in-session fund raising.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Senate Republicans are soliciting campaign contributions while the Legislature is in session, making them the only caucus to end its pledge to halt fund-raising voluntarily while laws and budgets are being passed.

For 28 years, in-session fund raising was banned by state law. But in 2001, the state attorney general ruled that the restriction violated constitutional free-speech rights of politicians and campaign contributors.

In the wake of that opinion, Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate were eager to assure the public that they had no intention of soliciting campaign funds from people trying to influence their public-policy decisions at the same time they were voting on bills and budgets.

So all four caucuses pledged to follow self-imposed bans on campaign fund raising. Likewise, the association of Salem lobbyists known as the Capitol Club passed rules banning members from contributing to legislators during the session.

"There was a consensus," said Andi Miller, executive director of the political-reform group Common Cause Oregon. "The general wisdom was, you just didn't do this."

But four years later, the Senate Republicans are no longer part of that pact.

Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli of John Day said that his caucus would continue its policy of not seeking or accepting contributions from lobbyists, political action committees or individuals with a known interest in legislation before the Legislature. His caucus also was discouraging individual members from fund raising during the session.

But Ferrioli said the Senate GOP's political action committee, the Leadership Fund, was for the first time actively seeking contributions from individuals with no known interest in bills before the Legislature.

With the Republicans in the majority in the Senate for the first time since 1994, Ferrioli said they had no choice but to match or exceed the Democrats in keeping a campaign office open even during the session to recruit candidates and work on election-season strategy.

He said that with Gov. Ted Kulongoski and other statewide office-holders raising money while the Legislature is in session, it made no sense for caucus leaders to suspend raising funds for the next election.

"If there's a justification for the statewide elected officers, is that a different job than what the caucus leaders are expected to do?" he said.

So far, the Senate Republicans' Leadership Fund has reported $5,100 in in-session contributions, which were received on Jan. 11, a day after the session began. In all, lawmakers have reported a combined $19,736 in in-session contributions. But several said those contributions were pledged before the session began, rather than the result of cash solicitations while the Legislature was meeting.

Since the Legislature convened, statewide office-holders reported raising a combined $67,865 - $39,500 of it being collected by Kulongoski. In 2003, his first session as governor, Kulongoski did not raise campaign money. But with two declared opponents seeking his job in the 2006 election, Kulongoski is no longer refraining from in-session fund raising.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix has reported raising $25,050 and Democratic candidate Pete Sorenson has raised $1,785.

Kulongoski campaign adviser Peter Bragdon said the governor wants to spread his fund-raising effort throughout the year because he has a full-time job, unlike legislators who can focus on fund raising after the session.

Miller said she considered Senate Republicans' in-session fund raising a more politically distressing activity than that of Kulongoski.

"I'm not concerned about the governor doing it because he doesn't have a choice," she said, explaining that Kulongoski's job doesn't enter an "interim" period as does the Legislature when it adjourns from session. "I am concerned about the Legislature because they have a choice. They can do this during the interim."

Both the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House, and the Senate Democrats, have maintained their policies against in-session fund raising. And the Capitol Club has renewed its rules that prohibit member lobbyists from donating to legislators when they are in session.

Senate Democratic Leader Kate Brown of Portland attributed the GOP caucus' decision to the fact that they "are desperate" after losing the majority. She said the "stand-down" policy against in-session fund raising helped keep Oregon's Legislature free of the perception of taint that has tarnished other assemblies, such as in Washington state, where legislative committee members commonly hold fund-raisers and ask for donations from lobbyists whose bills are before their panel the next day.

Brown said the Republicans' decision "creates a tangled web of integrity for the legislative process" and she said Senate Democrats would not follow suit - even if it puts them at a political disadvantage.

"The integrity of the institution is more important than who wins," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.