The Embarrassed Republican: Money and Politics

I used to be firmly convinced that Money ruled politics, if you didn’t have enough money, you just couldn’t play.  However, lately I’m not so sure anymore, especially after hearing about the 10 million plus dollars Governor Scott Walker put into to his campaign to try to stop his own recall.

Ten million dollars is a lot for any Wisconsin election, to have it all come from one candidate’s campaign is very unusual.  With that kind of monetary backing I would think the sailing would be pretty smooth.  However, when Governor Walker began to fight the recall his approval was around 48-50%, after 10 million invested he actually went down to a 46% approval rating.  I’m sure that’s not what he was expecting and I’m sure that’s not what his financiers were expecting.  It certainly doesn’t make Governor Walker look like a great investment, and yet contributions are still pouring in to his “stop the recall fund.”  I wonder if you can “Short” a Governor?

The questions raised all speak to the actual role of money in politics.  I always thought it was a given that someone could effectively “buy” an election.  Well, maybe not in Wisconsin, but it was still very surprising that all those dollars didn’t count for much at all.  Shouldn’t they? If Governor Walker didn’t have the 10 million, would he be tied to a stake right now with teachers and other state workers dancing around him while he burned?  This whole situation made me curious about contributions in general, so my next surprise came from looking at the contributions to some of our local campaigns.

Anthony R Bucco’s campaign, State senator from my home district, 25, won his re-election in 2011, and collected almost $60,000 in the process.  That’s not surprising in and of itself.  The surprising part is that according to NJELEC only 8 local citizens contributed to his 2011 campaign, not counting Senator Bucco’s own contribution of $500.  All the rest of the personal contributions were made by individuals that don’t live in district 25.  The locals contributed  $12,050, non-locals kicked in 15,839.50.  Although I was tempted to count the contribution from The Morris County Republican Committee as local contributions, except it was labeled “In-Kind”, so it wasn’t money, it was material or services.

The rest of the Bucco campaign contributions came from organizations, PACS and businesses.  Again the great majority of these listed addresses that were definitely non-local to district 25.  At least, the last time I checked Reston, VA, Washington, DC and Norwalk, CT are not in District 25.  Some contributing organizations I understand, like the State Troopers  NCO Association and Cablevision.  Helping a friendly face in the state senate makes sense.  Then we have more mysterious benefactors like RAI services from Winston-Salem, NC.  I had to look them up,  they are the parent company of R.J.Renolds Tobacco and American Spirit cigarettes.

I’m not sure what all this non-local funding means, if anything at all.  Anthony R. Bucco is an experienced legislator with years invested in the political game.  In politics experience counts, which makes Senator Bucco a tremendous asset for district 25. I was just surprised that we’re not the ones funding his campaigns.  Maybe that’s a bargain?  However, it does make me wonder what Senator Bucco might think about a constitutional amendment reversing the Citizens United ruling or putting stricter controls on corporate and organizational money going into campaigns?  What if only residents of District 25 could contribute to his Campaigns?

In reality, businesses and organizations do most of the campaign funding in the US, especially if you’re a Republican.  As an example look at the average donation to the Romney campaign in February of $150,000 versus the average donation to the President Obama’s campaign of $55.00.  Right now Romney is only 12% funded by individuals, which is very much like a lot of Republican candidates. Maybe the good news is that with hundreds of millions pouring into elections all over the country, most of it is not coming out of individual citizen’s pockets.  Well, then again maybe it is, I wonder how much of my cable bill goes to political contributions? 

Individual voters in American elections, when they do contribute,  tend to take sides making all their contributions to candidates or causes they care about.  However companies, unlike the human citizens, often give to both sides in a race.  Probably because companies and organizations can’t spend the next 2, 4 or 6 years sitting on the couch, grinding their teeth and shouting at the TV.  They have to keep going and working with whomever gets elected and right now, they can’t even vote.  They can only pay and hope.

Sources:  NJ ELEC  data for Anthony R. Bucco downloaded here

Opensecrets.org - contribution data for zip 07960