As a 22-year veteran of Congress and one of the Republican Party's biggest fund-raisers, Mike Oxley is a long way from his roots in the small town of Findlay in central Ohio.

		Previous articles See the first installment of the Toledo Blade series, The Price of Power Politics, on the Toledo Blade's Web site.

In his first campaign for Congress, the candidate, who grew up a few blocks down Main Street from Marathon Oil Co., accepted donations of $12,000 from the oil, gas and chemical industries.

But it would take a career of supporting legislation that helped corporations or opposing legislation that they opposed to garner nearly $9 million in campaign contributions, most of it from big businesses and the trade associations that they finance.

An investigation by The Blade of Toledo into Oxley's power and its connection to campaign financing reveals a pattern of political support and high-stakes contributions.

To Oxley, there's nothing wrong with the company he keeps or the donations he gets: They're a constitutionally protected form of financial free-speech from like-minded people or corporations to show Oxley that they support actions the affable congressman would have taken anyway.

"Am I going to sit down and meet with a CEO of a company whose PAC has contributed? Probably, but I probably would anyway," he said. "I raise a lot and give away a lot. The last cycle I gave away as much as I spent on myself to keep the majority, to keep me as chairman, and to increase our majority."

Superfund dries up

In 1995, the Superfund program, which cleaned up the nation's hazardous waste sites and was funded largely by taxes levied on oil and chemical companies, expired when its reauthorization stalled in Oxley's subcommittee, saving the oil and chemical industry more than $800 million a year in taxes. In the five years leading up to that point, Oxley received nearly $92,000 toward his re-election fund.

Oxley defends his role with the Superfund, saying that nearly half of the fund's cash was eaten up in legal costs and the fund wasn't cleaning up the sites fast enough.

Environmental advocates say the congressman's motivation was the financial support he had received.

"We have a totally different philosophical outlook," Oxley said of the environmental interests. "I wouldn't expect them to support me."

SunTrust deal falls through

SunTrust, an Atlanta-based bank, and several other banks turned to Congress to roll back the amount the banks had to pay into a national insurance fund that covers the savings and checking accounts of those whose banks fail.

In late 2001, language was inserted into an unrelated bill -- it's unclear by whom -- that would have saved the banks $1.5 billion in insurance funds. Before it was passed, however, the government's regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. got wind of it and protested to Oxley as head of the Financial Services Committee and the legislation wasn't pushed forward. But in the year leading up to that point, Oxley had received $12,500 in campaign contributions from SunTrust.

"I would be surprised if SunTrust didn't contribute something to my campaign since I've been chairman," Oxley said. "I'd think they'd have a policy of supporting the chairman."

Even so, SunTrust's PACs haven't given the congressman a dime since the deal with the FDIC fell through -- even though Oxley is still chairman of the committee.

Westar kicks in

The e-mail was very straightforward.

Westar Energy, Inc, of Kansas, would have to pay $56,500 in campaign contributions to get the Republicans' help in passing special legislation for the utility.

The firm's vice president for public affairs, Doug Lawrence, wrote to the firm's executive vice president, Douglas Lake, with specific details.

"We have a plan for participation to get a seat at the table. The total of the package will be $31,500 in hard money [individual] and $25,000 in soft money [corporate]," Lawrence wrote in the May 20, 2002, e-mail. "[Tom] DeLay is the House majority leader. His agreement is necessary before the House conferees can push the language we have in place in the House bill."

According to the e-mail, Republican House leaders wanted the company to help finance the campaigns of several Republicans in tight races "in lieu of contributions made to their own campaigns."

Westar was willing. After all, this was very special legislation. Consumer advocates say the "financial restructuring" the firm sought in Congress would have allowed its top executives to pocket millions while raising utility rates for customers.

Five days before his e-mail to Lake, Lawrence already had written to 13 company executives listing how much money they should give and to which Republican campaigns they should write their checks. The checks were to be forwarded to him.

The e-mail and the letter were made public earlier this year in a report detailing the results of an internal investigation by the firm's board of directors. They offer a vivid look at a practice that campaign-finance reformers say is all too common in Washington.

Within a few months, Westar had fulfilled the plan described in the e-mail, with an initial $25,000 corporate soft money contribution made to a Texas PAC founded by DeLay. By the end of the year, Westar executives or company lobbyists had contributed a total of $38,200 to several Republican congressional campaigns, the political action committees of Republican congressmen, and to a GOP candidate for Congress.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Ellen Seidman, who formerly oversaw the Office of Thrift Supervision and other banking regulators were able to push back a 2001 legislative attempt to insert language into a bill that would have aided SunTrust Bank of Atlanta and cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $1.5 billion. Click photo for larger image.

Oxley's campaign and his Leadership PAC 2002 were two of the recipients of the contributions by Westar executives. David C. Wittig, former Westar CEO, chairman, and president, gave $1,000 to Oxley; two other Westar executives gave another $1,000 to his PAC.

The legislative language requested by Westar was placed in a Republican-sponsored electrical supply and transmission bill after the Westar e-mail. But it was removed in October 2002, after it became public that Westar had been served with a federal grand jury subpoena concerning the use of company airplanes by executives.

Wittig was found guilty in July in federal court of several criminal charges involving a $1.5 million loan used in a real estate deal unrelated to the legislation mentioned in the company e-mail.

A spokesman for DeLay told the Topeka Capital-Journal in June that the e-mails were "simply incorrect and inappropriate." Spokesman Stuart Roy told the Kansas newspaper that "it's presumptuous for someone to think that by contributing to candidates who have challenging elections there's something they'll get in return."

Going in style

The contributions from Westar executives to Oxley's political action committee are among the millions of dollars received by the PAC since Oxley formed it in 1996.

Called leadership PACs, they have become an effective way to gain clout in Congress. Not only are special interests willing to give to candidates' personal campaign funds -- which they use to get elected -- they're willing to give to candidates' leadership PACs.

Federal campaign laws set a $2,000 limit that an individual or $5,000 that a PAC can give to a candidate's campaign in each election. By forming a leadership PAC, contributors get a second chance to give.

Oxley's leadership PAC was the 19th largest donor in Congress in the 1999-2000 election cycle. By 2002, after he'd been named chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Oxley's PAC rose to ninth-largest. His PAC is now the sixth-largest, ahead of notables like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R.-Tenn., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif.

But his PAC also has become a pocket from which to pull cash when he needs to pay for trips related to politics -- and Oxley likes to travel in style.

Federal election records show that he has used his PAC to pay for nearly 100 trips since 1996 to host fund-raisers for his PAC, or attend other. He has journeyed for free to places like Chicago, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, Calif., and New York, where his leadership PAC puts him up at some of the most exclusive hotels in the city -- the Pierre, Mayfair and Peninsula to name a few.

While in New York, his PAC also has pays for limo rides, tickets to the Palace Theatre, and dinners at the famous 21 restaurant.

And then there's golf. Oxley's PAC has paid for his greens fees and those attending fund-raisers at country clubs in Virginia, California, West Virginia, and Ohio.

One of his favorite haunts is the Lodge at Vail, and he hasn't had to dig into his $154,700-a-year congressional salary to afford the annual trips he makes to the Colorado ski resort. His PAC pays for the trips, as do the lobbyists and corporate executives that join him there at a cost of $3,000 each to spend time with him.

These trips are beyond the $168,000 in free trips he has taken since 1996 to places ranging from Palm Springs, Calif., to Paris. Those 28 trips, which often included his wife, were paid for by U.S. corporations and the groups they fund, ostensibly so Oxley could attend educational seminars or meetings on government business.

While some fund-raisers have been held across the country, others have required just a short drive from the Capitol. Lobbyist R. Mitchell Delk has helped Oxley host two fund-raisers for his leadership PAC at the exclusive Galileo Restaurant in downtown Washington, in which they charged $500 per individual or $1,000 per political action committee to attend.

But, as part of what Oxley has called his "team player" approach, he worked with Delk last year on Galileo fund-raisers that directly aided other GOP campaigns -- fund-raisers that have come under fire.

Delk is the chief lobbyist for Freddie Mac, the giant home mortgage lender. Oxley's Financial Services committee provides congressional oversight of the corporation, and last year his committee killed legislation -- pushed by a fellow Republican -- that would have increased oversight of the mortgage underwriter.

Oxley was the star attraction at 24 of Delk's 45 fund-raisers in 2001 and 2002, drawing dozens of home mortgage executives who wrote checks to attend. Besides the two that benefited Oxley's own political action committee, he took part in 22 fund-raisers for other Republicans, including 19 from his own committee.

This summer, Freddie Mac ousted three top executives, including its chief executive officer, and conceded that it had overstated its earnings by $4.5 billion.

Public Citizen has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission over the dinners at Galileo.

"Freddie Mac's lobbyist is out there hosting lavish fund-raisers for the same members of Congress who are now deciding the company's future," said Craig Holman, legislative representative with Public Citizen's Congress Watch. "This is treading near a quid pro quo."

Oxley said his fund-raising activities on behalf of fellow Republicans are legitimate and help the GOP maintain its majority in Congress, saying he hasn't been "an aggressive fund-raiser for a long time."

And, he said, he doesn't buy the argument that there is too much money in politics.

"We spend more on dog food in this country than we spend on politics."

Payday lending

On a cold Washington day last February, Oxley took a break from winter and headed south to do what he had done so many times before -- take a free trip to attend a conference and fund-raiser with grateful executives.

This time the checks would be written to his Leadership PAC by the payday lending industry.

The conference began on Feb. 26 at the Palm Beach Garden PGA National Resort & Spa, a sprawling complex with palm trees lining the drive and payday lenders eagerly lining up to shake the hand of one of their favorite members of Congress.

It was an industry that had seen plenty of controversy.

Payday lending had mushroomed over the past decade, offering loans of a few hundred dollars to people for a couple weeks -- usually charging a fee of about $15 per $100 borrowed.

And while several states -- including Ohio -- had agreed to allow the practice, several states had not, including Pennsylvania. And in one state, North Carolina, the legislature had allowed it and then outlawed it. To still do business in these states, payday lenders had partnered with small, federally regulated banks -- and then argued that their federal banking charter superseded state law.

Oxley was their champion in Congress. As chairman of the committee that oversees banking, he had sidelined a bill introduced by Democrats that would have outlawed the practice that critics dubbed "charter-renting." And, he repeatedly chastised federal regulators for clamping down on banks that partnered with payday lenders.

In fact, on the day the conference began, Oxley wrote a letter to Donald E. Powell, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., urging him not to crack down on pay-day lenders.

"I trust that the FDIC's guidelines will be grounded in fact rather than assumptions or perceptions," Oxley wrote. "As you may know, payday loans have long been offered in my state in a responsible manner."

The congressman's work on behalf of the payday industry was appreciated by Billy Webster, president of Advance America, one of the biggest payday lending companies in the country.

Banks in America are regulated by four separate federal agencies -- each with their own regulations and bank examiners. One set of federal banking regulators -- the Office of Comptroller of Currency -- had already complained that Webster's Advance America was violating consumer laws and shouldn't be partnering with a bank that it regulated.

Under pressure, Webster agreed in January to shut down his chain's 216 stores in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

But another banking regulator, the FDIC, had reversed course and began allowing the banks it oversaw to partner with payday lenders. Oxley lauded the decision in a letter to Powell, while Webster just switched to a bank that the FDIC regulated. And he stayed in business in those two states.

So instead of shutting down stores, Webster was overseeing the industry's annual convention in Florida. What Webster didn't know was that a consumer group -- the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina -- had paid to have one of its employees, Tanya Wolfram, attend the event.

According to notes she took at the event and then provided to The Blade, Webster, the group's past president, told conference attendees about a fund-raiser he was holding for Oxley.

"Congressman Michael Oxley has been there for us over and over again, so be there with a checkbook on Friday afternoon to show support for him," Webster told his fellow payday lenders, according to Wolfram's notes.

When asked about his comments at the conference, Webster referred all questions to the payday association. It issued a statement denying Webster had said what Wolfram reported that he said.

The association, however, had no problem with the fund-raiser for Oxley.

"Make no mistake, the payday advance industry is proud to work with any legislator -- state or federal -- who agrees that consumers across the country deserve access to short-term credit with the appropriate consumer protections in place," according to the statement.

Oxley said he attends the payday association's conferences to lend his support for their efforts to improve the industry from within.

"You're not going to outlaw them and there is a certain segment of the population that needs that kind of banking service," he said.