(3 of 3)
Still, Pressler is considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans standing for re-election in 1996. His seat once looked shaky: a year or so ago South Dakota's G.O.P. Governor Bill Janklow considered backing a challenger to Pressler, though he now says he is happy with the Senator. Pressler's probable Democratic opponent, Congressman Tim Johnson, is making lots of noise and is practiced at pointing out Pressler's befuddled manner. During an interview on South Dakota public television in 1993, Johnson said, "I just get more and more people coming up to me, complete strangers, frankly, in Washington, saying, 'What's wrong with your senior Senator? Is he sick, or is he just kind of a bizarre person?' I don't know." In response, Pressler derided the comment as mere politics and said, "I feel fine; I always have."
Certainly his campaign's financial health is improving. As chairman of a powerful committee, he has been able to collect political-action committee money almost at will. After he became chairman, he arranged fund raisers for himself, at which Tele-Communications Inc., the Motion Picture Association of America, News Corporation and Time Warner, among others, were hosts. Sheila Krumholz, a research associate with the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, says she expects Pressler to at least double the $145,367 in pac contributions he received from the communications industry during his campaign in 1990. "This is the biggest bill to hit telecommunications in 60 years," she says. "And money goes to those who have the most influence over the legislative issues that these companies care about."
Clearly, they care plenty. This week on the Senate floor, amendments will be flying. On one side, Republican Senators Bob Packwood of Oregon and John McCain of Arizona will press to make the bill easier on the communications industry by limiting the government's authority to keep the Baby Bells from moving into long-distance service, by lifting price controls on small cable operators and by allowing broadcasters to own more television stations.
On the other side, Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, among others, will try to limit rate increases and preserve a major role for the Justice Department in managing local markets. Nothing short of the future of the telecommunications industry is at stake. At the moment, the betting is that Pressler's bill will succeed, at least in some form. "Like Ronald Reagan, he benefits from being underestimated," says Kenneth Duberstein, a lobbyist and former White House aide. "In the end, Larry Pressler, as usual, will produce."
--WITH REPORTING BY TOM CURRY/SIOUX FALLS