The unregulated, often untrackable millions that influence political campaigns are an evil thing because they allow a few individuals too great an influence over an election. One need look no further than the 2000 primary season...
George W Bush, despite being the choice of the GOP establishment, faced a difficult race against pro-campaign finance reform Senator John McCain. McCain had done far better than expected in some early states and seemed to be a real threat to Bush's nomination. Super Tuesday was approaching and the most important battle was New York. Unlike other states, New York was a "winner take all" primary in a delegate-rich state. Though Bush and McCain each felt confident they could win several other states on Super Tues, the winner of New York would likely take a large delegate lead and figured to be the eventual nominee.
McCain seemed to be in a small lead in most of the polls with less than a week left in the race. Then, on Thursday, just 4 days before voters went to the polls, a group called "Republicans for Clean Air" made a massive $2.5 mil ad buy in New York, Ohio, and California. The ads they ran touted George W Bush as a friend of the Environment, but the ads mostly attacked John McCain for his wretched environmental record. You could not turn on a TV in New York and watch for 15 minutes without seeing the ads. They blanketed the airways. Republicans for Clean Air spent more on TV ads in 4 days in New York than the Bush and McCain campaigns spent combined over the course of the entire primary season.
The ads were condemned by fact-checking media members as being grossly deceptive about both candidates records on the environment. McCain was no great environmental friend, but pro-environment groups had largely endorsed him over Bush. It did not matter... the ads aired relentlessly in the final days of the campaign.
Maybe it was the ads, maybe it was something else, but McCain slipped in New York in the final few days, barely losing the primary to Bush. Once the result of the New York primary was known, the media pretty much declared Bush the winner of the nomination and many in the McCain camp admitted that the race was over.
Many media watchers wondered who Republicans for Clean Air was. The organization had only been invented the day before the ad buy was made. In fact, Republicans for Clean Air was so hastily organized, it actually misspelled the word "Republicans" on the forms it filed announcing its creation. After a bit of media digging, two men came forward and announced they had created and financed Republicans for Clean Air -- Charles and Sam Wyly. The Wyly Brothers, who are billionaires, are close associates of George W Bush and have given millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes over the years. They have not been generous givers to environmental causes thought. In fact, a legitimate and well-known group Republicans for Environmental Protection, said it has never received a donation from the Wyly Brothers.
The Wylys did not care about the environment. They saw an opportunity to use that issue to hurt John McCain and boost their friend, GWB to the nomination. They bought the nomination for Bush... and it only cost them $2 million to do it.
I don't say any of this to pick on one candidate or another. There is no evidence Bush had any idea about what the Wylys were doing. There are examples of Democratic millionaires throwing money around to boost one candidate or another. I merely bring this up as an example of how money can influence a campaign and how powerless the other side is to respond. In 2000, McCain spoke out and said the Republicans for Clean Air ads were false and misleading, but his :10 second sound byte that ran on the news was drowned out by thousands of TV ads that ran all day for 4 days ahead of voting day.
It is not at all ironic that John McCain attempted to do something to fix all of this. McCain-Feingold was an attempt to keep unregulated money out of politics. It failed because money=speech according to the Supreme Court.
I do not know what can be done. I am encouraged that the internet has made it so easy for small donors to get their funds to the candidate of their choice. The campaigns in recent years of Howard Dean, Ron Paul, and Barak Obama (in 2008) were each extremely well-financed thanks to legions of small donations, not because rich friends or corporations backed them (though Obama certainly eagerly took donations from the rich as his campaign picked up steam in 2008).
Still, we see situations like what has happened in Iowa in recent weeks where ads from previously unknown organizations have suddenly flooded the air with attacks on Newt Gingrich. The ads were bought by Restore Our Future. Mitt Romney claims he has no ties to that organization, though he has been
the featured guest speaker at fundraisers for ROF and ROF says its sole purpose in life is to get Mitt Romney elected president.
Sigh...
The reason we use Iowa and New Hampshire as our early voting states is to give the voters a chance to get to know the candidates up close. Odds are excellent that most of the folks who vote in Iowa will have had a chance to personally see several of the candidates speak and probably even shake their hand and ask a question. There is very little money involved in a handshake and a speech. And yet, while we still value this small-scale type of campaigning, we increasingly tell the less-monied candidates they do not matter by allowing Super PACs to spend millions of dollars to influence the elections. Why even bother with the retail politics of the small states if money is going to play such a huge role in the end?
I don't know what to do, I just know that it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Barak Obama has a massive war chest ready to roll out once he knows who he will be running against. The attack ads from both sides will likely be brutal. It is not a pretty picture.
I've heard it said that money is like voting... except it allows people to vote with their wallets. Ok, fine. But what happened to one man, one vote? Money allows the rich to vote a heck of lot more often than the poor and that just is not right.
-Jason "by the way, if anyone feels this post is over the line, please let me know. The mods will take it down if folks think it is partisan" Evans