Welcome, my friends, to the era of unlimited campaign finance. Thank-you, SCOTUS! For the past few years, Exxon Mobile can give unlimited amounts to campaigns that trash the environment, while Mother Earth is stuck doing bake sales: anything to compete.
If that doesn’t alarm you, consider the recent piece on The Daily Show regarding holding Wall Street accountable for the financial crisis. I don’t think this embeds, so watch it here.
Considering the troubled state congress is in, reform is unlikely. And as this critical New York Times piece shows, there is little chance at reform. This should be on top of the “most e-mailed” list.
Let me highlight:
“Freshmen are pushed and pushed and pushed to raise money — it’s how they are judged by the leadership and the political establishment in Washington,” said Mr. Miller, who added that he felt the same pressure when he joined the Financial Services Committee in 2003 as a freshman. “It’s only natural that it has got to be on your mind that a vote one way or other is going to affect the ability to raise money.”
After the elections in November, Democratic Party leaders gave a PowerPoint presentation urging their freshman members to spend as much as four hours a day making fund-raising calls while in Washington, and an additional hour of “strategic outreach” holding breakfasts or “meet and greets” with possible financial supporters. That adds up to more time than these first-term lawmakers were advised to spend on Congressional business.
That’s. Just. Wrong.
There’s also a Huffington Post article from January on this issue. Just look at these schedules:
So in terms of time, the donors are just as important as you, the constituent. Right?
Wrong:
Congressional hearings and fundraising duties often conflict, and members of Congress have little difficulty deciding between the two — occasionally even raising money from the industry covered by the hearings they skip. It is considered poor form in Congress — borderline self-indulgent — for a freshman to sit at length in congressional hearings when the time could instead be spent raising money. Even members in safe districts are expected to keep up the torrid fundraising pace, so that they can contribute to vulnerable colleagues.
Wait? What? How is it self-indulgent to raise money during your committee hearings. YOU WERE ELECTED TO GO TO THESE HEARINGS BY YOUR CONSTITUENTS FOR YOUR CONSTITUENTS. IT’S YOUR JOB TO GO TO THESE HEARINGS FOR GOD’S SAKES.If a doctor sees patients, it’s not “borderline self-indulgent.” He’s paid big bucks to do it. A member of congress is paid big bucks to go to his committee hearing. Not going is the self-indulgent thing.
I’m sorry. That’s just wrong.
Still, there’s more:
Working a schedule like that as a freshman teaches a member of Congress about the institution’s priorities. “It really does affect how members of Congress behave if the most important thing they think about is fundraising,” Miller said. “You end up being nice to people that probably somebody needs to be questioning skeptically. It’s a fairly disturbing suggested schedule. You won’t ask tough questions in hearings that might displease potential contributors, won’t support amendments that might anger them, will tend to vote the way contributors want you to vote.”
Fundraising should not be more important than constituents. Lobbying groups did not vote representatives in: the people did.
On the other hand, your Democratic congressman might be in office only because of people like your neighbor, who votes for whoever has better TV ads:
But without the DCCC pushing members to raise cash, Grijalva himself may have suffered. In 2010, a Tea Party candidate came from nowhere and almost knocked off the cash-strapped incumbent. The DCCC stepped into spend nearly $200,000 on the campaign, likely helping keep him in his office.
Citizens United is just one rock in this avalanche. What we really need is an overhaul of campaign finance. Sure, it’s one thing to travel around your district shaking hand: that’s necessary. It’s another if candidates need money for $500,000 prime-time TV.
Sadly, with the current state of Congress, we can’t expect reform anytime soon.
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