Enron's reach in Congress

Gramm isn't the only member of Congress with ties to the company. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 71 sitting senators and 188 sitting members of the House have received money from Enron over the past 10 years, including Democrats as well as Republicans.

Democrat Charles Schumer of New York received more than $21,000 during his campaign to defeat Sen. Al D'Amato. In his campaign, Mr. Schumer supported deregulating electricity as a way to lower consumer prices.

These types of donations, say analysts, while not illegal, can create a perception of impropriety. "Enron has cast into stark relief the whole issue of Washington drowning in soft, unregulated money," says Marshall Wittmann, an analyst at the Hudson Institute. "It is a story of soft money buying access to both parties."

As a result, the Enron affair could create a renewed push for campaign-finance reform on the Hill. A measure to ban soft money contributions passed the Senate last summer, then stalled in the House. But it has been gaining momentum in recent weeks - and now needs only four signatures to force a vote in the House.

"Enron does help the cause of campaign finance," says Rep. Christopher Shays (R) of Connecticut, one of the bill's cosponsors. "It shows that large corporate-treasury money has brought them access in the ways that large contributions always do."

He concedes that large firms, inevitably, will have some access to government officials. "A company like Enron is going to have access by the fact of what it is and what it does. But in the end, there shouldn't be such vast sums of money going into the ... process."

And while the rules currently allow for such contributions, a number of lawmakers are nevertheless scrambling to return their Enron donations.

Two Democrats - Sen. Jean Carnahan and House minority leader Richard Gephardt, both of Missouri - have already promised to return $1,000 contributions they received from the energy company, and the National Republican Congressional Committee is returning $100,000.

President Bush has been opposed to campaign-finance reform, but some analysts say the Enron fallout may cause him to change his position. Less certain is Enron's impact on the 2002 congressional races. Most of the top recipients of Enron cash in the Senate are not up for reelection this year. All House members are.

And in the Senate race with the biggest links to Enron - the race to succeed Gramm in Texas - the effect could cut both ways. The GOP candidate, Attorney General John Cornyn, has recused himself from the Justice Department's probe because he has received more than $150,000 from the company, while the leading Democrat, Rep. Ken Bentsen, has received more than $42,000 - the most of any House member.

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