There’s Little Fun in Fund-Raising
By Tania Valdemoro
Steven Weiss (left)
and Larry Makinson
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LOS ANGELES - Politicians have hang-ups about money. They know they need it to win elected office. Lots of it. But they hate asking donors for money.
That was the surprising conclusion of two experts who study money and its influence on politics.
Fund-raising is one of the main reasons some politicians don’t run for higher office, said Larry Makinson, a senior fellow with the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, DC, who interviewed dozens of politicians for his book “Speaking Freely,” which he wrote with fellow speaker Steven Weiss, communications director at the Center on Responsive Politics.
Quoting from a section of the book about Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), who decided not to run for the Senate in 1997, DeFazio said Makinson told him: “You pretty much have to neglect your job, stuff that I’m there to do, or want to do, on all the issues. And beyond that, you’re spending all this time on telephones, talking to people you don’t know, you’ve never met. And it’s not something I want to do. It’s disturbing. It’s all-consuming. That’s what it’s all about. Did you raise enough money today; did you make your quota?”
Still, politicians can’t ignore money because it can give them the edge in competitive races, said Weiss. He noted that Rep. Bob Franks (R-NJ) won the endorsement of The New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer during the 2000 Senate race in New Jersey, yet he lost to Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs executive who won by three percentage points. Corzine, who spent $63 million, outspent Franks nearly 10 to 1.
Money can also help a candidate level the playing field against a tough opponent, although it doesn’t guarantee success, said Weiss. He referred to the 2002 New York Senate race between former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY). Lazio told Weiss he spent most of his time fund-raising instead of campaigning because Clinton was already well known and had a bigger war chest. Looking back, Lazio, who lost to Clinton, thought fund-raising hurt his campaigning because it deprived him of time to get his message across to voters.
Victors inevitably feel pressure from donors when they reach elected office, said Weiss. “The people who are there in Washington, DC and Sacramento arrive with two satchels. They represent two constituencies, voters and cash constituents,” said Makinson. And the issues cash constituents care about, like transition rules for tax breaks, are usually underreported in the media, he added.
Donors give for a variety of reasons. Some give money because they want small policies enacted like zoning changes, said Charles Stile, a statehouse reporter for The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record. Most donors, however, want access to the politician they supported, said Weiss. Implicit in gaining access is the donor’s expectation that the politician will carry out policies that are favorable to him or her because of the money they contributed.
Take the case of former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL) and Florida’s peanut farmers. Weiss said that Scarborough had voted against a bill promoting peanut subsidies because he opposed farm subsidies in general. The peanut farmers decided to contribute to Scarborough after the vote. He told them matter-of-factly at a fund-raiser that he would vote against the bill again if it came up, although he appreciated their support. Scarborough kept his word, said Weiss.
And then, “They called up enraged. They were yelling at my chief of staff, saying what in the hell is Scarborough doing here,” he added, quoting Scarborough from “Speaking Freely.”
Still, others donors give money because of ego; they want to be power players or they want to become ambassadors for life, Makinson said.
However, the donor-politician relationship is not a closed system. Journalists have a responsibility to report on money that flows from donors to politicians, he added. “If the media isn’t covering it and the public isn’t digesting it, members of Congress have a lot more leeway to do what they want,” said Makinson.
The upcoming presidential election also calls for media scrutiny of donors because of the strong emotions from Democrats and Republicans underpinning the contest, he said. “I can’t remember in my lifetime a presidential race where people thought there was so much at stake. You should call up [presidential donors] and talk to them and tell your readers about them.”
Yet, money flowing in and out of local government remains the untold political story of the day, Makinson said. “The real ground that hasn’t been broken is in county and city government. The more you get to the local level, the more outrageous things you find.”
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