The Money Factor

2008 Fundraising Totals:

Democrats
Hillary Clinton, $26 million
Barack Obama, $25 million
John Edwards, $14 million

Republicans
Mitt Romney, $23 million
Rudy Giuliani, $15 million
John McCain, $12.5 million

This list represents candidates from both parties for who’ve raised over $10million in the in the first quarter (Jan-Mar). There were only three in both parties, but I will point out that that New Mexico Bill Richardson is under $10million by around $500,000. Hillary Clinton, not surprisingly, is the top fundraiser of all Democratic candidates.

Compare the winners in presidential elections:

Bush (2000) $193,088,650
Gore (2000) $132,804,039

Bush (2004) $292.6 million
Kerry (2004) $253.9 million

This is all from OpenSecrets, and I couldn’t find data for primaries in those years (FEC databases take way too long to download), but clearly money is a good indicator of one’s success in politics. It’s good news for Democrats though, because two Democratic candidates are raising more money than any of the Republican candadates. I’m surprised Romney is doing so well (I thought the divorce/scandal from some years back would really hurt him in the primary), I think a lot of people were expecting McCain to emerge as the frontrunner as Clinton did. This is only the first quarter though.

This is really disappointing for a democracy, especially when we pride ourselves on having to the government. So, what can be done? Well, to start, the money=free speech doctrine from Buckley v Valeo can be overturned. If money truly equals free speech, then some people are better represented than others; some have more opportunities (and better opportunities) to have their voices heard, to impact public policy. More importantly, limiting contributions from other people and groups (and not doing the same for contributions to one’s own campaign) makes politics a playground for the rich. That's the last thing we want to do. Here in California, you have to be prepared to spend $10million for make a competitive bid for Governor, $6-8 million for a competitive US Senate bid, and $.5-1 million for a competitive campaign for Congress. Luckily, it’s not at the point where you absolutely have to be independently wealthy to even consider running for Congress, US Senate or Governor, but it’s getting really close to that point. Democracy needs to be brought back to the American people.