Search And Seizure on Capitol Hill

By Ed Magnuson

The police raiders struck after midnight. Armed but in plain clothes, they knocked on the locked door. No response. Their leader inserted a passkey and pushed. On the inside, the fugitive braced a shoulder against the door and shoved back. But the lawmen burst in, reinjuring the suspect's broken finger. Reluctantly he allowed them to lead him into an elevator, then went limp. They lifted him up, carried him feet first through massive doors -- and onto the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The bizarre arrest of Republican Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon by the Senate's sergeant at arms and five Capitol police officers last week showed how emotional the presumably genteel senior body has grown over a furiously partisan election-year issue: a Democratic plan to reform campaign financing. Packwood's offense was to flee a quorum call. The raiders also came across Connecticut Republican Lowell Weicker, who was waiting out the call in his office. But, cowed by Weicker's bulk (6 ft. 6 in., 235 lbs.), they backed off when he stoutly insisted on remaining on his couch.

The witching-hour theatrics stemmed from the frustration of Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd over the Republicans' filibuster of his cherished campaign finance-reform bill. Last year Byrd failed in seven attempts to muster the 60 votes needed to shut off a debate and bring the measure to a vote. Last week he decided to take off the gloves, declaring, "There is no point in continuing the casual, gentlemanly good-guy filibuster."

Instead of permitting the talking to stop at night so each side could sleep, Byrd enforced stern, old-fashioned filibuster rules reminiscent of the civil rights battles of the 1950s. He requisitioned 50 cots from the Army, set them up in the Capitol and vowed that if the Republicans yielded the floor even momentarily, the presiding Democrat would demand a vote on the bill. A cadre of Democrats, he said, would be assembled to pass it.

Republicans, led by Assistant Minority Leader Alan Simpson of Wyoming, countered that strategy by demanding quorum calls, then vacating the chamber so the 51 required to continue business would be lacking. Byrd retaliated by ordering the sergeant at arms to corral any Republicans he could find. While Packwood took his arrest with good humor, he complained, "We work on comity around here. You can't do business on brute force." Republican Arlen Specter of Pennyslvania charged excitedly that the seizure of Senators "smacks of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia."

The clash over tactics obscured the argument about the merits of reform. The Democratic bill, co-sponsored by Byrd and Oklahoma's David Boren, would limit both spending by candidates and donations from their supporters. Republicans normally raise more money for Senate candidates than do Democrats, and they have no intention of relinquishing their advantage. Says Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, who has raised $1 million for his 1990 re-election: "We have done a better job of fund raising, and we're damn proud of it."

Beyond that, Republicans call the bill an "incumbents' protection act," claiming that challengers must be free to spend whatever they can to overcome the officeholders' natural advantages. Still, polls show that most Americans object to the high cost of campaigns, and it is dicey for a candidate to oppose reform. Republican Senators supporting the filibuster obviously would prefer to kill the measure without voting on it.

Yet plenty of Republicans, as well as Democrats, find fund raising an increasingly onerous, degrading chore. Three Senators, Republicans Paul Trible of Virginia and Dan Evans of Washington and Democrat Lawton Chiles of Florida, ; blame the money-raising ordeal in part for their decisions not to seek re- election this year. The Senate works at a three-weeks-a-month pace principally so its members can get away to hunt cash. Says Democrat Max Baucus of Montana: "Senators are becoming part-time legislators and full-time fund raisers."

Mainly because of TV costs, election campaigns are growing ever more expensive. The average Senator spends some $3 million to hold his job, which requires raising $10,000 a week throughout a six-year term. Projections based on current trends suggest that the cost of a Senate election may triple by 1992 if not checked. The need for huge amounts of cash gives disproportionate influence to the political-action committees and lobbyists, who are legislators' biggest contributors. Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, a public-interest group fighting for reform, calls the present financing system a "national disgrace" and argues that "obstructionist Senators should get out of the way and let the terrible mess in Congress be cleaned up."

The Byrd-Boren bill would place a $100,000 limit on the amount a House candidate could accept in contributions from PACs. Senators would have a sliding cap, from $190,950 to $825,000, depending on the size of their states. Spending would be similarly limited, ranging from $950,000 to $5.5 million for Senators in a general election. The caps would be voluntary, but those who accepted the limits would be entitled to such benefits as lower mail and TV rates. Anyone running against an opponent who ignored the limits would receive public funds to match what his foe spends.

Byrd is determined to leave finance reform as a legacy of the leadership role he may vacate next year. But his harsh tactics backfired. On Friday a resentful Senate, by a vote of 53 to 41, once again failed to invoke cloture, and Byrd reluctantly agreed to table his bill. In Congress, big spending, and big fund raising, remain business as usual.

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CREDIT: TIME Chart by Cynthia Davis

CAPTION: CAMPAIGN COSTS

DESCRIPTION: Total spending for congressional races; color illustration of man on ladder holding sign reading "Vote".

With reporting by Hays Gorey and Ted Gup/Washington