The sleaze in the statehouses.

• Author: Greenberger, Scott
• Position: Inadequate state campaign finance laws

Inside the fortress nestled in the woods of Fairfax County, Virginia, that is Mobil Oil Corporation's world headquarters, four company officials sat at a conference table and tried to explain what they didn't do to kill a clean air bill supported by environmental groups and more than two thirds of Virginia voters.

The measure, slated to take effect in 1997, would have required all new cars sold in Virginia to meet California's tough emission standards--a move that would cost the oil companies billions of dollars. Thus it's reasonable to believe Virginia state Senator Edward M. Holland, the sponsor of the bill, when he says that the industry financed a "carefully coordinated, major lobbying effort" to ensure the bill would fail. But to hear the Mobil execs tell it, that little bill died all by itself:

"There was no advertising campaign," said one, "and our public relations campaign amounted to this: Responding to queries, always being there to talk to whoever asked to talk to us--that's our public relations campaign."

"There really wasn't any grand strategy," said another.

"The enormous campaign that we mounted amounted to Ben and two very bright technicians," added a third.

And so on.

Somebody's lying here. But in Virginia and many other states around the country, even the most intrepid journalist would have a tough time telling you who. That's because, as campaign finance reformers focus on big-business vote buying at the national level, state campaign finance laws make the besieged federal rules look downright draconian.

In Virginia, for instance, campaign finance limits are pretty simple: There are none. There--as in Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Idaho, and Oregon--orporations, individuals, political action committees (PACs), and unions can spend millions buying small-town legislators without even bending the rules. That's precisely what the federal government was trying to prevent when it limited individual campaign contributions to $1,000 and PAC contributions to $5,000 annually.

Of course, most states' laws are subtler than Virginia's; there are a few limits, but with loopholes you could drive a limousine through. Twenty-one states have no cap on the amounts PACs may give; 18 allow unlimited personal contributions. Combine that with reporting requirements for lobbying that demand about as much vigilance as Reagan's oversight of the S&Ls, and you've got a recipe for disaster--or rather, a recipe for just the kind of backroom dealmaking that's made so many average Americans feel shut out of the democratic process.

As soul-searching about big-money influence slowly gathers momentum in...