By Terry M. Neal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 30, 1998; Page A11

The Justice Department is reviewing allegations that last June Senate Republicans voted against major anti-tobacco legislation in return for promises from the tobacco industry that it would help finance favorable advertising for the GOP before the fall elections.

The review comes at the request of Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who echoed concerns raised by the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids in an earlier complaint to the Federal Election Commission.

"The concern was that the big tobacco companies, in an attempt to torpedo the [Sen. John] McCain [(R-Ariz.)] tobacco bill, promised to run ads helpful to Republicans who voted against it," said Daschle's spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer.

Justice Department spokesman Michael Gordon yesterday would say only that "we're reviewing the concerns Senator Daschle has raised." But other officials, who asked not to be identified, said the department was reviewing the matter as it would any complaint from a member of Congress and that it had not reached criminal investigation status.

The Baltimore Sun reported yesterday that Assistant Attorney General Anthony Sutin wrote Daschle that the allegation "raises concerns under the bribery and gratuity statutes."

The Senate killed the landmark anti-tobacco bill -- which would have, among other things, raised tobacco taxes to deter smoking among youths -- on June 18.

Neither a key tobacco industry official nor Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) -- chairman of the Senate Republicans' campaign committee -- could be reached for comment late yesterday. But both strongly denied any quid pro quo, according to the Sun article.

Staff writer Michael Grunwald contributed to this report.