ASHINGTON - On Wednesday, delegates to the Republican National Convention will hear Dick Cheney give his acceptance speech as the party's vice presidential nominee. That is, if they don't get distracted by the smell of sausage-and-pepper subs from Paul Cellucci's nearby ''Carnevale Italiano.''
The South Philadelphia Italian street festival, being hosted by the Massachusetts governor, is one of hundreds of corporate-sponsored parties at this year's Republican and Democratic conventions. Once aimed at nominating the presidential tickets, the party gatherings have been transformed into a $100 million Super Bowl of Schmooze.
Cellucci's street festival, which will run at the same time Cheney speaks, was conceived to increase ethnic support for the GOP presidental ticket headed by Texas Governor George W. Bush.
In most cases, corporations are sponsoring lavish parties, with tax-deductible donations, aimed at influential lawmakers and party figures. They are also kicking in the goods, from 400 cars courtesy of General Motors to pagers from Motorola to 21,500 gift bags from Verizon Communications, the wireless communications giant formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE.
Massachusetts delegates will be feted at brunches and receptions sponsored by FleetBank, John Hancock, CVS and NStar, parent company of Boston Edison.
''Instead of being exercises in democracy, these gatherings have turned into glorified money drops for special interests,'' said Scott Harshbarger, president of Common Cause and former attorney general of Massachusetts.
The donors see it differently.
''Microsoft supports the political process and believes that the nominating conventions are an important part of that process,'' said Rick Miller, spokesman for the software maker. Miller denied that the company, which is donating an estimated $750,000 to each convention in cash and computer support, is trying to affect the outcome of its antitrust court fight with the Justice Department.
''We gave in '96, so our giving to these conventions predates the trial,'' he said.
Fueling the money flow is the rising cost of conventions and changes in fund-raising laws that allow the donations. Each party is expected to spend over $50 million on its gathering, up from $30-35 million in 1996. The Treasury Department provides $13.5 million to both the Republicans and Democrats for their conventions, and in most cases the local government kick in a share. In Philadelphia, the city and the state of Pennsylvania have donated $7 million in cash and millions more in services.
That leaves a money gap, one that corporations have steadily filled following a 1984 change in corporate-giving laws.
Convention financing came under scrutiny in 1972, when columnist Jack Anderson uncovered a memorandum written by a lobbyist, Dita Beard, that suggested ITT Corp. had committed $400,000 to the 1972 Republican National Convention in return for having the Nixon administration settle an antitrust case against the company.
After Watergate, Congress passed a host of fund-raising reforms, including one that banned corporate underwriting of conventions. In its place it instituted public financing of conventions. In 1984, the government loosened the regulations by letting convention host committees accept unlimited corporate donations.
The gifts were also made tax deductible, since they were considered marketing expenses. The donors had to be disclosed, but not until 60 days after a convention. Today, with a booming economy, the floodgates have opened.
One congressional beneficiary of the largesse is Representative W.J. ''Billy'' Tauzin of Louisiana, who is vying with Representative Michael G. Oxley of Ohio to the be next chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Tauzin is the honoree at a Tuesday ''Mardi Gras'' party at Philadelphia's Navy Pier.
The event is backed with $400,000 worth of donations from utility, telecommunications and cable companies, Business Week reported. The firms are familiar with Tauzin from his role as chairman of a House telecommunications subcommittee.
Oxley himself is hosting a corporate-sponsored party for his fellow Commerce Committee members emceed by former ''American Bandstand'' host Dick Clark.
That same night, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories Inc., Pfizer Inc., Eli Lilly & Co. and other drugmakers, all of whom are fighting attempts to lower the price of prescription drugs, are holding a reception for Republican lawmakers at the Academy of Natural Sciences, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Also on Tuesday, House majority whip Tom DeLay of Texas is hosting a reception for Northeast delegates, as well as a ''Red, White and Blues'' party for an expected crowd of 5,000. The delegate reception will be paid for with corporate donations to DeLay's leadership political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority; the street party is sponsored in part by SBS Communications, the American Trucking Associations and Texas-based American Airlines, Business Week reported.
The Democratic gathering is subject to similar scrutiny. Party officials are blushing over a party that Representative Loretta Sanchez of California is hosting Aug. 12 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. The event is supported by Playboy Magazine and donations to her Hispanic Unity political action committee.
Fred Wertheimer, former head of Common Cause and now president of Democracy 21, a public policy group that supports campaign finance reform, thinks what will occur in Philadelphia and next month in Los Angeles erodes the democratic process.
''It certainly reinforces the notion that big givers have a unique advantage in our democracy, and our elected officials treat those donors as first-class citizens leaving the rest of the people in this country as second-class citizens,'' Wertheimer said.
Cellucci's street party, which he is giving along with Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Patricia de Stacy Harrison, cochairwoman of the Republican National Committee, is being supported by Verizon; Global Crossing, a California fiber optics company; the Council for Republican Environmental Advocacy, a party environmental group; and Interface Electronics Corp.
The Massachusetts delegates will eat a brunch on Monday sponsored by Southern Energy. On Tuesday, CVS will pay the bill, while on Wednesday it will be John Hancock and on Thursday FleetBank. NStar and AT&T are sponsoring evening receptions.
On Tuesday night, the delegates will join those from a half-dozen other states at a party in the Hard Rock Cafe. The sponsors include Pfizer and its pharmaceutical rival, Glaxo Wellcome Inc.
John Brockelman, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said the donations will not exceed $6,000 per company.
