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It also moved him to act. In 1983 Severn established LASTPAC (an acronym standing for Let the American System Triumph) to make Iowa voters aware of the moneyed influences entering state campaigns and to support national anti-PAC legislation. "It is the PAC to end all PACs," says Severn.
Through the activities of LASTPAC, Citizens Against PACs and the citizens' lobby Common Cause, PAC is becoming a dirty word and a campaign cudgel. Pressured by PAC-shunning opponents and an anti-PAC crusade by the Boston Globe, the leading contenders in this year's Massachusetts Senate race—Democrats James Shannon and John Kerry and Republican Elliott Richardson—are refusing PAC support. Complains Shannon: "We keep hearing how quiet this race is. Well, without PAC money no one can afford to be on television or in the newspapers."
Candidates who elect to run PAC-less campaigns, however, are still in a decided minority. Only two members of the Senate and eight Congressmen decline to accept PAC contributions.* No wonder: unless a candidate is personally wealthy or politically invulnerable, the highroad can be a short cut to defeat. Democratic Congressman Tom Harkin of Iowa, for example, takes PAC money even though he has voted repeatedly to limit PAC influence. Says a Harkin aide: "To refuse PAC money would be to lay down your sword when you know your opponent has a gun."
To make money less of a weapon, Activist Stern is lobbying to include the offices of Congressman and Senator in the legislation that this year will provide $130 million in tax revenue for presidential candidates. Several bills now before Congress provide for public financing. But there is a practical roadblock on Capitol Hill: incumbents, who receive 77% more in PAC donations than challengers, have no desire to vote away their built-in advantage.
PAC opponents are confident that they will succeed eventually. "The confrontations over the PAC issue are going to get worse, not better," predicts Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause. "We all have the same goal: to get rid of a rotten system that simply has to be changed."
—By Susan Tifft. Reported by Hays Corey/Washington and Richard Homik/Boston
*Democratic Senators David Boren of Oklahoma and William Proxmire of Wisconsin; Democratic Congressmen Anthony Beilenson of California, Andrew Jacobs Jr. of Indiana and William Natcher of Kentucky; Republican Congressmen Bill Archer of Texas, William Goodling of Pennsylvania, Willis Gradison Jr. of Ohio, Jim Leach of Iowa and Ralph Regula of Ohio.