Larry Campbell stands in his office in Salem on Sept. 13. Campbell helped start the political action committee Oregon Victory PAC, which donates funds to Republican candidates.

The business community, Larry Campbell says, was asleep.

He was the alarm clock.

The year was 1988 and for the previous decade, Campbell, a Eugene Republican, felt as though he had been relegated to the sidelines of the Oregon House as a member of the minority.

And he didn’t see that situation changing as long as Democrats kept getting what he saw as unanswered major donations from labor unions.

”Businesses didn’t realize what was happening,” he said. ”The people who had money to get their messages out were the ones who were successful, and it was the public employee unions that were getting stronger and stronger.”

Union money went to Democrats, not business-oriented Republicans, he said.

His basic philosophy is that it doesn’t matter if campaigns cost $30,000 or $300,000: If two sides have roughly equal dollars to get their messages out, the race will be competitive.

So Campbell, who was House minority leader, teamed with his Senate counterpart, Tony Meeker, and the Oregon Victory Political Action Committee was born.

Campbell solicited business donors, explaining what he saw as an anti-industry dynamic at the Capitol. The dollars poured in.

In 1990, the PAC handed out $283,000 in money to fellow Republicans, according to state election records. By 1991, the House was in Republican control and Campbell was voted House Speaker – a post he held for two sessions.

Today, mention the word ”powerful” in Salem, and inevitably the name Larry Campbell comes up.

After leaving the Legislature, he launched a lobbying firm that is also a family business: His wife and two of his sons work with him. But much of his clout comes from the PAC he helped create and still controls.

In the 2004 election cycle, the Oregon Victory PAC doled out $501,000, with donations coming from an array of Oregon donors such as Eugene sawmill owner Aaron Jones and Portland textile and media magnate Robert Pamplin.

The money went exclusively to Republican candidates vying for open legislative seats or trying to unseat incumbent Democrats. Among them: Rep. Chuck Burley, R-Bend, who was sent $55,000 for his first race for the House, which he won.

The fund remains necessary to counter the political dollars that continue to flow to Democrats from unions, Campbell, now 75, said recently. It already had $404,000 in the bank as of June for this year’s election.

Campbell said money isn’t sullying politics in Oregon, but negative advertising is. Scurrilous attacks on the campaign trail are leaving hard feelings when elections are over, making it harder for lawmakers to work together, he said.

”Negative campaigning has done extreme damage to the political system on both sides,” he said.

”It’s not honest and it’s not legitimate. But as long as people can spend the money and tear the heart out of somebody and voters see it as a good thing, we’re going to keep seeing it.”