SALEM - Beer and wine lobbyist Paul Romain flew Oregon legislators and their employee-spouses to trade shows in Palm Springs and Hawaii in the 1990s, prompting a state ethics committee to decide in 2000 he had violated laws limiting gifts to lawmakers.

A Marion County judge overturned the ethics committee's ruling in 2001, saying gift laws were too vague.

Since then, lawmakers have struggled with how to clarify the laws.

House Minority Leader Jeff Merkley, D-Portland, says it's time to end what he calls a "cozy relationship" between lawmakers and lobbyists.

He is planning to introduce a bill that would limit lobbying activities.

Laws on gifts to officials need to be more specific and more complete disclosure of lobbyist spending should be required, Merkley said.

Merkley wants to explicitly bar legislators from accepting family vacations paid by lobbyists. He also says there should be a mandatory break between serving in the Legislature and becoming a lobbyist.

House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, disagrees with Merkley on the magnitude of the problem.

She said Oregon has "one of the most open political processes in the nation," so any lobbying that goes on is open to public scrutiny.

"However, we're always willing to consider how we can make improvements," she said.

But it's not only Merkley who thinks lobbyists have too much power.

"People don't seem to be outraged and that, to me, is outrageous," Andi Miller of Common Cause Oregon said of the link between money and politics at the national and state level.

As a lobbyist for the public interest advocacy group, Miller doesn't regard lobbying as inherently bad - but she says greater oversight is needed.

There are more than 650 registered lobbyists in Salem - outnumbering legislators by about 6-to-1 - and they represent a wide range of interests and people, from pharmaceutical companies to the homeless.

Some provide only information and position papers; others supplement that with fat entertainment spending.

In 2003, lobbying groups spent a record $21.4 million, up from $19.8 million for the previous session. The money pays for everything from salaries to perks to postage.

The Oregon Grocery Association spent $434,000 in 2003, the Oregon Restaurant Association plunked down $454,000 and the Oregon Health Sciences University spent $335,000.

In 2001, the pharmaceutical industry sent two dozen lobbyists to Salem to kill an effort by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber to require doctors to prescribe drugs from a state-approved list of often cheaper medicines or seek permission for exceptions.

Industry lobbyists told legislators that sick people might not be able to get the most up-to-date drugs for their illnesses if doctors had to go to a state list.

Kitzhaber argued that the pharmaceutical industry was trying to kill his measure to preserve huge profits, but his proposal went nowhere.

Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, says lobbyists are a vital part of Oregon's political system. He is also adamant that lobbyists and their money don't control lawmakers.

"If information is power, then they're very powerful because they have a lot of information," he said.

Ferrioli said he would be "very sad" if anyone thought a vote could be influenced by dinner.

It's hard to connect money to votes, Miller said, because "money may be drawn to people whose ideas match your own, or your ideas may shift slightly with money."

Lobbyists like Ellen Lowe, who works for the Oregon Food Bank and Oregon Law Center, said she compares lobbyists to the court system, "where everybody is entitled to representation."

The grandmotherly, 74-year-old Lowe thinks of herself as a messenger, not an entertainer for lawmakers.

But she sees nothing wrong with entertaining lawmakers, and doesn't believe the practice influences votes.