Congress in Crisis: Coming to Terms With Congressional Reform
England, Robert Stowe
CONGRESS IN CRISIS Robert Stowe England COMING TO TERMS WITH CAMPAIGN REFORM Congress won't change its ways if the best reformers can do is argue that money in political campaigns should be...
...MY LIFE AS A CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE It was quite late and I was in bed, just drifting off to sleep, when the telephone rang...
...We shook hands and I left, to be replaced by another candidate...
...he asks...
...It didn't really matter...
...As PAC spending rises and becomes a larger part of total campaign spending, it carries with it more funding for incumbents...
...They want public funds to pay for the races, to keep the politicians "pure...
...Meanwhile, Kansas Republican Pat Roberts would raise limits on contributions from individuals and political parties while reducing PAC spending, a plan that has the makings of a workable reform...
...Melvin R. Laird vacated the seat to become Nixon's defense secretary...
...The public suspects that congressmen have become devoted to only one thing —the perpetuation of themselves in power...
...The number of PACs grew from 608 in 1974 to 4,828 by the end of 1988, and became the dominant type of funding...
...Before the tax reform of 1986, there was a 50 percent deduction on small donations of this sort...
...He hadn't heard a word...
...ignored my call for debates throughout the district...
...The lack of competition was spread fairly evenly throughout the country, with the exception of the mountain and western 22 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989 Piedmont counties of North and South Carolina, where a regional stronghold of competition survives in seven districts...
...One way might be to distinguish between what is desirable and what is politically possible...
...A second bill wants a 30 percent cut in advertising costs for radio and television, but only for candidates who limit their spending—another Catch 22 for challengers...
...That night only thirteen GOP candidates would unseat Democratic opponents despite the avalanche of support for President Reagan at the top of the ticket...
...One is called the Coalition to End the Permanent Congress, founded last March in Kansas City by two Midwestern Democrats...
...They are suspicious of public financing, insisting that there be no ceiling on how much money can be spent, if public financing is chosen...
...At least now I would never have to wonder what I could have done differently to put me over the top...
...That same night, President Ronald Reagan trounced Walter Mon-dale in one of history's great landslides...
...There is almost no agreement on how to reduce costs, although some, like Nelson and Magleby, want broadcasters to provide free or inexpensive time to all candidates, and others support giving challengers free mailing privileges...
...Greater individual giving will be more difficult to trace, but it will weaken the influence of PACs...
...Those who spent the most money were the most likely to win...
...As the returns came in it was clear that I had lost, and lost big...
...A s the controversy over PACs illustrates, debates on campaign finance reform often break into two camps, the idealists and the realists...
...But most impressive was the public address system, which allowed me to blare Sousa marches at deafening volumes while I greeted voters along parade routes...
...I retrieved them and continued my progress toward the exit...
...While purists see that as a pact with the Devil, others see it as a misguided way to make up for the party's poor fundraising abilities...
...I should have said, "Mr...
...On the positive side, this native wisdom makes Americans more suspicious than most about who's paying for what when it comes to politics, and makes it harder for crooked politicians and bureaucrats to prosper...
...he said he was homesick for Chicago...
...That was me...
...CONGRESS IN CRISIS Robert Stowe England COMING TO TERMS WITH CAMPAIGN REFORM Congress won't change its ways if the best reformers can do is argue that money in political campaigns should be further restricted...
...President Bush has issued his own campaign finance reform package, giving the issue cachet and high visibility...
...He'd like to see a "true marketplace" of electoral competition...
...The money trickled, not poured, in...
...President, dairy farmers of northern Wisconsin are concerned about your agriculture policy" or implored him to come campaign on my behalf...
...A clearer picture of the state of competition in the electoral marketplace can be seen in a study just completed by the Center for Responsive Politics, a liberal organization that would like Congress to take the necessary steps to regain the public's respect...
...During the elections PACs spent an average of just under $200,000 for the winning House candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics...
...One thing people like Wertheimer seem unwilling to admit is that it is virtually impossible to prevent the flow of special interest money to a Congress that makes its living raising and spending money...
...At the same time, my mind raced ahead: How did I come to their attention...
...Twenty feet from the exit the van's roof began to scrape on the concrete ceiling...
...Former House Majority Whip Tony Coelho, the California Democrat who left office earlier this year rather than face troubling ethics questions, is credited with convincing the Democratic party to accept, and even seek out, business PAC contributions, in return for giving PACs "access" to elected officials...
...I pored over district vote totals and read whatever I could find about district demographics, fund-raising, issues, Obey's voting record, and public speaking...
...Was it my stand on family issues or defense...
...He put me in touch with his Washington consultant, who suggested I become campaign finance director...
...You've got an uphill road ahead of you," nodded the object of my greeting...
...Or the Spooner Rodeo...
...Since, as Ornstein notes, the only campaign finance reform that will emerge from Congress is one that has some form of public financing, Republicans might find tax deductions palatable...
...House Republicans have devised partisan plans of their own...
...In Wisconsin's Seventh Congressional District, Reagan beat Mondale 53 percent to 46 percent...
...Incumbents received the most funding, incumbents won the most seats...
...The ideal of serving the public seems to have taken a back seat, while special interests are riding shotgun with the men and women who write our laws...
...T he growing alarm over the per- t manent Congress, where incumbents go on winning forever, has focused more and more on the money that allows congressmen to run and to be re-elected while often ignoring their constituencies...
...The only problem with this "marketplace" is that it turns out to be severely constricted by government, if not almost entirely supplanted by it...
...This would help the Democratic party, whose fundraising abilities have grown rusty, and have thereby become a barrier to campaign finance reform...
...They believe that nearly all the recommendations of the idealists will enhance incumbency rather than encourage challengers...
...It's as if no one was running," says Alan I. Abramowitz, professor of political science at Emory University...
...Because PACs could donate more money than individuals, they became the chief vehicle for growth in campaign financing...
...By Abramowitz's yardstick, the Senate remained a competitive body, but just barely...
...In nearly 85 percent of the House races, the winner outspent the loser by a margin of at least two-toone...
...Only in America can a situation of "conflict of interest" be made to sound like a crime, instead of merely a possible breeding ground for crime...
...In 1982 business PACs gave 60 percent of their funds to Republicans...
...Nevertheless, the data are there...
...Incumbents have increased their spending by 50 percent, while challengers have spent 30 percent less...
...It would be tough, but with a strong coattail effect from Reagan's re-election, a ton of money spent on advertising and mail, and a little bit of luck, Chilsen could win in November...
...President Bush wants to abolish all but the ideological PACs (which favor Republicans...
...I let Chilsen know that I was interested in helping him oust Obey...
...My dreams popped like a big soap bubble...
...This is the second in a series of TAS articles on the Great American Congress in Crisis...
...Behind me, a dozen cars were lined up, their egress blocked by my embarrassing plight...
...Only seventeen of the races were moderately or highly competitive...
...The obvious question is why...
...I won my hometown by a landslide, but lost my home county...
...When Chilsen opted not to vacate a safe seat in the state senate to challenge Obey, I was disappointed...
...Sooner or later, Old Man Money will come over, around, or under the dam...
...frying to stop the flow of money into the political system is like trying to dam a mighty river...
...Good luck...
...This could be traded with the Democrats for increases in limits on personal and party donations...
...The Bush plan, for example, has been called the "hobble incumbent Democrats plan," by Norman Ornstein, Washington's veteran Congress-watcher at the American Enterprise Institute...
...I had the energy, the knowledge of national issues, the speaking skills, and the fund-raising prowess to be the candidate...
...My roof-mounted loudspeakers crashed to the ground...
...I figured these weaknesses could be overcome with an advertising campaign which started with a spot where people mispronounced my name, perhaps ending with a tag line such as "It doesn't matter how you say it...
...that is, the winner carried less than 55 percent of the vote...
...The Brookings authors would also allow soft money to flow to the parties, and they would raise the limit on party contributions to candidates from $10,000 to $30,000...
...I faced the American campaign Catch 22: I couldn't raise money until I showed momentum, I couldn't show momentum until I raised money...
...by Mark G. Michaelsen Fr he months flew by, an endless stream of parades, speeches, fundraisers, and county fairs...
...The media campaign would end with warm, sentimental spots about shared values and dreams for a better future, loaded up with pretty Wisconsin pictures: "It's morning again in north-central Wisconsin...
...Unlike most Washington reformers, the grass-roots reformers want to limit representatives to six terms and senators to two terms.' A second grass-roots organization, the Study Group on Electoral Democracy, was founded by the three former organizers of the Nuclear Freeze movement...
...But by the time he finished his book he had reversed his position...
...Thestatement by Al Swift, the Washington State Democrat who is co-chairman of the House bipartisan task force, that the permanent Congress is a myth does not bode well for reform...
...I hadn't lived in Wisconsin for four years...
...The idealists want what sounds like perfection: no PACs, little or no private money, and then only in small contributions...
...This unintentional mixed metaphor perfectly described my plight...
...Miller calls this development "a death knell for democracy...
...You've got a tough, uphill road to hoe," said the voter...
...While reformers point to many villains, their favorite whipping boy is the political action committees (PACs...
...Incumbents carried the day with twenty-three of twenty-seven re-elected, a re-election rate of 85 percent...
...Sabato would like to see PACs modestly reformed, but not abolished...
...At the same time the amount of money required by a challenger to win is increasing...
...Then, retaining PAC limits at $5,000, to please Democrats, might not be so difficult...
...Michaelsen for Congress," answered my van in eight-inch letters...
...As the Republican candidate for Congress in Wisconsin's Seventh District in 1984, I was accustomed to late-night calls from journalists, usually wire-service reporters racing to meet a deadline...
...Since 1984 spending by incumbents has declined, from its all-time peak of $162,000 to just $115,000 in 1988...
...Sabato also claims there's less to the alleged corruption touted by Common Cause than meets the eye...
...Election after election, Seventh District Republicans had fielded token challengers with little financial support—retired vacuum cleaner salesmen, bankrupt mobile-home moguls, a fellow named Burger who campaigned wearing a chefs hat and a white apron, and so on...
...The Center for Responsive Politics study found a healthier level of competition in the Senate...
...I won one northern county and lost another by only five votes...
...These may be unintended 'One exception in Washington is Fred Barnes, who also would like to limit congressional tenure to twelve years...
...Maybe it was the Ogema Christmas Tree Festival...
...The realists like PACs but would also like to see more individual contributions flow into the system, under the watchful eye of the Federal Election Commission...
...An even purer strain of the reformist sentiment can be found in new grassroots organizations that are beingformed around the country...
...PACs are good," he says...
...Wertheimer is equally pessimistic...
...Republicans oppose public financing for ideological reasons...
...The electoral reformers mean to quote St...
...In 1988 PACs gave $82 million to various congressional campaigns, with nine out of every ten dollars going to incumbents...
...So much for coattails...
...On the advice of Chilsen's consultant, I procured a promise from district Republican leaders to raise a hefty amount of startup cash...
...According to Wertheimer, the meager funding for challengers suggests that "for all practical purposes, the challengers have been defunded...
...By 1988 they gave 55 percent to Democrats...
...If this is just an oversight, we'll be happy to continue sending you the New Republic until we receive your check...
...Paul, who wrote, "The love of money is the root of all evils," only they shorten it to a slightly different form: "Money is the root of all Evil...
...At the same time, campaign costs have soared and forced candidates to fmd new sources of funding...
...Instead, why not free up spending, so that individual donors can compete with PACs—and give challengers a chance to compete with incumbents...
...They bring transparency that allows the public to know who is giving what to whom, and to follow the money trail if it suspects a congressman has sold his vote...
...The new funding would greatly reduce the dominance of PACs...
...This wasn't a reporter, it was a telephone solicitor...
...In more than half of the races (230) the winner spent ten times the amount spent by the loser...
...It would prefer 100 percent publicly financed elections, preferably by grants, provided candidates muster a minimum amount of support from the electorate...
...With name identification established, spots clobbering the incumbent on issues would follow...
...Ideally, funding schemes should attempt to balance the thousands of competing interests against one another and expose them to light by requiring that they be identified...
...Herbert E. Alexander, director of the Citizens Research Foundation and professor of political science at the University of Southern California, believes that the election reforms of 1974—which limited individual contributions to $1,000 per candidate per election and gave PACs a $5,000 limit-led to an institutionalization of the special-interest influence political reformers sought to eliminate...
...Imagine a man using a garden implement to try to dislodge asphalt from a road running almost straight uphill, like one of Hercules's mythological labors...
...Big Mo was just around the corner...
...Or the Central Wisconsin State Fair...
...I want to be your congressman...
...More compelling is the logic of people like Ornstein, who, echoing the views of the academic experts, believe that the only way to change the system for the better is to devise ways to free funds...
...We've noticed we haven't received your subscription renewal," she said...
...Increasing the contributions of political parties to candidates would also help reduce the influence of PACs...
...And, worst of all, my opponent ignored me—ignored my stinging press releases, critical of his votes on school prayer, national security, and federal spending...
...In short, Sabato says the "big PAC attack is an opiate that pleasantly obscures the more vital concerns and problems of campaign finance"—such as how to increase the flow of money to challengers to allow them to compete with incumbents...
...The source of funding is "the ultimate evil," Stewart says...
...This shortening of a worthy saying ingrained in the American spirit has had both favorable and unfavorable results...
...Its co-chairman, David A. Stewart, a Democrat from Eureka, Arkansas, claims "Congress will not change unless the American people force them to change...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989 23 consequences, they say, but they'd nevertheless be very real...
...A native of central Wisconsin, I was working at Hillsdale College in Michigan in early 1984, when I learned that Wisconsin state senator Walter John Chilsen was mulling a run against Obey...
...Democrats, on the other hand, are shamefully slighting the need for reform and belittling those who claim there is a problem...
...The 1988 House "non-election" is alarming...
...No one has spoken out against PACs more than Wertheimer at Common Cause, who crusaded against them as early as 1974...
...My skillful exploitation of the resentment of northern Wisconsin sportsmen toward an agreement to let American Indians ignore fish and game laws...
...There is some concurrence that there is not enough competition in House elections, but no agreement on how to increase it...
...They now claim 110 of the failed House challengers and a score of concerned citizens as members and plan to set up speakers' bureaus around the country to preach the new gospel...
...I had to let nearly all the air out of the tires to finally escape...
...Individuals, who gave three-fourths of the financing in 1974, began to disappear...
...Liberal Democrats oppose increasing individual giving, also for ideological reasons...
...One type of public spending in particular could work, if Congress can accept its cost...
...Looking at the system in the abstract is what the idealist reformers do best...
...A s the grand finale to a candidate training school sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee, would-be GOP congressmen were herded into the Gold Room of the White House to be photographed with the President and Vice President...
...That represents an average of 48.4 percent of the funding for the House winners, nearly all of them incumbents...
...Over 83 percent of the seats (363) were won in landslides, where the winner won by more than 60 percent...
...The system of representative government has broken down," he says...
...Not only did incumbents sweep the voting, they rarely had serious competition...
...I stepped forward...
...E lection night found me in a local watering hole, appropriately named The End of the Line, watching returns and swilling something strong with a few of my friends...
...Larry J. Sabato, professor of government at the University of Virginia and author of PAC Power (1984), says that when he first began to study them, he was convinced they were a great evil...
...In spite of all the spending, only thirty-seven (nine percent) of the House races could even be described as highly competitive...
...But Republicans may be missing their chance to gain ascendancy...
...Democrats claim they want comprehensive campaign reform, yet their plans seem to belie that claim...
...This switch is often attributed to a change of heart among the House Democratic leadership...
...His son and daughter-in-law were expecting their first child any day...
...David R. Obey, who received 61 percent of the vote...
...These idealists are worlds apart from the realists, largely academics who have devoted their lives to studying election financing...
...I packed my belongings in a U-Haul trailer to head home for Wisconsin...
...The big solicitors—the direct-mail consultants, entertainment promoters, and those who could tap into elite money networks—became king...
...Many can quote the 98.5 percent re-election rate for the House in 1988...
...Despite this alarming picture, the academics who have studied the role of PACs most closely deny that PACs have a corrupting effect...
...Abramowitz would like to see at least 15 to 25 percent of incumbents defeated by challengers in each election "to instill a healthy respect for the voter...
...in the September 1989 TAS...
...The conventional wisdom is that Congress is not really serious about reforming elections...
...I cared deeply about America's future and was a dedicated conservative...
...It's a winning issue for Republicans, because almost any kind of reform is likely to bring more Republicans into the House...
...Those were my strengths...
...However unrealistic their remedies, their analysis is superior to that of the experts on one important point: that the issue isnot whether special interests' campaign contributions cause corruption on the individual level, but whether they corrupt the entire democratic process...
...Aside from these two camps, there is a host of bills awaiting action in Congress...
...The second problem, Wertheimer says, is that PACs favor incumbents even more than other funding sources...
...I'm running against Dave Obey...
...I'd met George Bush twice before, during the 1980 Wisconsin presidential primary...
...The result...
...This year, in fact, the issue has achieved its greatest allure since Nixon's election Fat Cat scams Robert Stowe England is a Washington writer...
...With pride and gratitude, I accepted the unanimous endorsement of Seventh District Republicans...
...The study documents the growing spending gap between incumbents and challengers, which has risen from $43,300 in 1980 to $264,104 last year, a stunning 510 percent increase...
...She believes the areas of agreement must address three central issues: (1) the cost of running for office, (2) the role of special interests, and (3) the lack of competition...
...There had been no rematch...
...He would severely limit their ability to donate and, thus, their potential to influence government...
...Wertheimer believes that the Federal Election Commission can dam the money river by enforcing prohibitions more vigilantly...
...Exactly...
...Two of their proposals, however, merit attention...
...A bipartisan task force has been laboring for months, promising a bipartisan breakthrough but finding consensus on only a few, mostly peripheral, issues...
...First of all, "they increase the capacity for money to be used to buy influence," he says...
...The solution will defy us, however, if we give in to Puritan instincts that seek to perfect the morals of mortal congressmen rather than channel their better instincts to prevail over their coarser ones...
...PACs have become the single most important source of funds for House members, far outdistancing party contributions and often exceeding individual donations...
...Although Obey outspent me nearly five to one, my 92,507 votes were both the highest total and highest percentage of votes cast against Dave Obey since he was elected in 1969...
...The other cochairman, Michael D. Brown of Enid, Oklahoma, ran as a Republican...
...Would it be favorable or unfavorable...
...Why would a 26-year-old kid with no name identification challenge the formidable 49-year-old chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, who had served in Congress since 1969, when former Rep...
...Public spending need not be viewed with the horror conservatives usually reserve for it...
...I was somewhat nervous and tongue-tied when I met the Leader of the Free World...
...If we accept the notion that our democracy is seriously compromised by Congress's campaign financing regime, we are halfway there...
...It is "leaning toward" a ban on private, individual donations, including small donations, even those as small as $50...
...Desperate, I left the van in a parking ramp near the studio...
...It would probably have the best chance of any type of public financing of gaining public support because it leaves control of the funding in the hands of the voter, not in Washington...
...The answer: almost by accident...
...Yet even that doleful statistic cannot fully capture the level of electoral arteriosclerosis that is endangering the institutional health of Congress...
...And my name was really hard to pronounce, an alliterative tongue-twister which confounded broadcasters, statesmen, and voters...
...Those who spend hours poring over Federal Election Commission data, however, say that's not as easy as it sounds...
...My campaign treasury finished with a slight surplus...
...If campaign reform is to succeed, it must be sweeping and comprehensive, and root out all the ways in which private money can influence politicians and corrupt the political system...
...Ah, you've got a tough row to hoe," observed my new acquaintance...
...Beyond this, there is little consensus...
...This American tendency to impute guilt by association is at the root of finding a solution to the problem that so many concerned citizens and organizations are fretting about—congressional campaign financing...
...In 1988 successful first-time officeholders (including some who were not running against incumbents) spent $576,000 to get elected...
...I'm Mark Michaelsen," I said, smiling and proffering my calloused mitt...
...This would be a tax credit for small donations, $50 per person and $100 per couple...
...The worst possible result would have been to amass a huge debt, come very close, and lose...
...As we sat in the ornate chairs by the fireplace, cameras whirring, he cocked his head and said, "Wisconsin...
...He leaned forward and put his hand on the arm of my chair...
...I want to work for you in Washington...
...President Reagan grinned genially, and we sat...
...I didn't mean to be the candidate...
...Because of the spending limit, total individual giving has remained static...
...The experts recognize this is a problem, but take it in stride...
...This would help House challengers reach the level of spending necessary to wage a competitive campaign, which generally requires $400,000 to $500,000...
...For most of my acquaintances from campaign school, the night would end similarly...
...He became quite animated...
...The Demo-crats are divided on public spending...
...I told her what a fine magazine I thought the New Republic was and how much I had enjoyed a recent article on Sandinista human rights abuses...
...She believes the resort to slick media campaigns, paid for mostly by sources outside the electoral district, and the demise of the political stump speech have contributed to a growing public cynicism and apathy about politics...
...Of the thirty-three Senate races, twenty-nine were won by the candidates who spent more money...
...One Democratic bill would provide limited public financing to candidates who voluntarily limit their spending, a plan that would likely strengthen well-heeled incumbents and further weaken challengers...
...California Republican Bill Thomas wants to pass a rule requiring that a majority of all funds be raised within the district being contested...
...Suddenly I heard a sickening crunch...
...I'm Mark Michaelsen," I said, extending my hand...
...I inquired about one of his sons whom I'd also met in 1980...
...PACs, in short, increase the tendency of campaign financing to favor incumbents...
...What could I do for the caller, I asked...
...He was a nice man...
...Co-organizer Randy Kehler of Deerfield, Massachusetts, says his group wants to build a widespread "citizens' movement for democracy...
...One day I was late for an interview at a television station in one of the district's remote cities and I couldn't find a place to park...
...Newcomers to my current office see my pictures with Ronald Reagan and George Bush and assume the photographs are clever forgeries purchased from an arcade...
...T hose who think of Washington as 1 a hotbed of the profane may be surprised to learn that at least one Bible scripture is very popular these days among those who want to reform Congress and the way in which senators and representatives conduct their election campaigns...
...But never had I received a call from such an important publication...
...The group has already passed resolutions calling for a banning of PACs and the elimination of the franking privilege for mass mailings...
...For me, it could have been even worse...
...Nelson and Magleby would have challengers raise a minimum from tax deductible contributions to qualify for matching grants...
...I snapped to attention...
...T raditionally, incumbents have al- 1 ways attracted more money than challengers, but it was not until recently that the difference became so great as to threaten the viability of the electoral system itself...
...On election night, 1984, I was O blown out by incumbent Rep...
...That's just north of my old stomping ground in Illinois...
...While labor PACs have traditionally given to Democrats, business PACs began to switch their party allegiance to the Democrats around 1984...
...that might have tempted me to run again in 1986...
...While the outlines of a consensus can be roughly drawn, the details could make or break it, and getting political support seems very uncertain, to say the least...
...Headroom continued to shrink...
...What would the article say, I wondered...
...None had received more than 38 percent of the vote...
...This, Kehler hopes, would enliven elections with more challengers and even serious third-party candidates...
...Fred Wertheimer, president of the ethics lobby Common Cause and Washington's foremost critic of campaign financing, tallies the 1988 election as follows: candidates raised $205 million, spent $142 million and incumbents had $63 million left over for the next election...
...Cows were admired, good deeds were praised, and hands were shaken...
...What congressman in his right mind would sell a vote for $5,000 and risk being tainted and drummed out of office...
...Regardless of tone, a New Republic article mentioning my candidacy would surely unlock a torrent of political action committee contributions, instantly transforming my campaign from amateur shoestring effort to formidable, well-financed juggernaut...
...The negative side is that money itself—filthy lucre, as tent revival preachers might say—is viewed suspiciously, even when no wrongdoing is involved...
...Of that total, challengers spent only $37 million...
...The 1988 House elections were the least competitive since 1792...
...Mark Michaelsen for Congress...
...After the interview, I was leaving the ramp when I noticed how low the ceiling was getting...
...He blames it all on money, but is astute enough to argue that campaign finance reform must concentrate on increasing competition...
...Instead, I mumbled something about having worked for Hillsdale, which he had visited and praised...
...The message...
...Only in America can a situation of "conflict of interest" be made to sound like a crime, instead of merely a possible breeding ground for crime...
...What kind of idiot was causing their delay, I could feel them wondering...
...who lost their bids for House seats last year...
...A small group of hometown supporters had purchased an aging Ford Econoline, painted it red, white, and blue, and outfitted it with a bed and desk...
...spawned the finance reforms of 1974...
...For example, soft money—private donations made to parties, not to candidates—made a dramatic comeback in last year's presidential campaign, despite the fact that presidential campaigns are publicly financed...
...More than 60 percent of the campaigns were not competitive, with winners receiving 60 percent of the vote...
...Perhaps what we need is a little inspiration from James Madison, and his uncanny knack of keeping his sights on the heavens and his feet firmly planted on the ground...
...For instance, limiting PAC spending would incline PACs to spend even less money on challengers...
...They want to limit public spending, too, claiming that this will make it easier for challengers to compete...
...The correlation between the amount of money spent and the outcome could not be clearer...
...Obey had edged the former senate majority leader in the 1969 special election to fill Laird's seat...
...I had some connections in the conservative movement in Washington...
...I had a deep love for, and knowledge of, the towns and cities, forests and dairy farms of the Wisconsin Seventh District, which sprawls across all or part of eighteen of the state's central and northwest counties...
...That's the view of Candice Nelson, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author with David Magleby of the book The Money Chase, to be published by Brookings later this fall...
...The PACs, seeing no "viability" (their word for a snowball's chance in hell) in my election, weren't about to invest in my race...
...I'm Mark Michaelsen," I said, dratting the troublesome moniker, and offering a handshake...
...This brought immediate changes in campaign financing: "The once key role of the large donor was replaced by that of the effective fund raiser...
...The realists believe that money will inevitably find its way into campaigns and that the problem is too little, not too much, money...
...I didn't hold public office...
...My campaign manager quit...
...I was already kicking myself for being such a boob with President Reagan...
...ignored my very existence as a candidate...
...The center's study, exhaustively compiled by journalist Larry Makinson, documents the amount of money spent, its source, and the closeness of the elections in the 435 House seats and the thirty-three Senate seats up for election last year...
...The New Republic...
...24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989 "There's no accountability to the voter...
...Incumbents spent only $380,000...
...Top consultants were hired, then fired...
...There has been some bipartisan agreement on lesser issues, such as abolishing honoraria (if pay is raised), limiting franking privileges, and not allowing congressmen to carry campaign funds into retirement...
...The quixotic campaign of a 26-year-old neophyte against an entrenched seven-term liberal incumbent Democrat...
...Mark G. Michaelsen is a policy advisor to the Michigan State Senate Majority in Lansing, Michigan...
...At least I had the van...
...President Bush has steered clear of the Thomas proposal, but it has the support of Republican Whip Newt Gingrich...
...T he central task, in short, is to find areas of agreement between the idealists and realists, Democrats and Republicans, incumbents and challengers...
...That money would be necessary to hire a talented campaign manager and finance director, and to get started raising big money and enlisting an army of volunteers for what would be the strongest challenge ever to Obey...
...Currently there is no agreement on special interests, especially PACs...
...Another thirty-five seats were mildly competitive, with the winner gaining between 55 and 60 percent of the vote...
...Total PAC spending in 1988 was $151 million—a vast increase over the 1974 level of $12.5 million...
...I was excited by the possibilities...
...How does one integrate all these proposals, when the area of agreement is so limited and the issues so divisive...
...The reformers remain defiant...
...Other donors, including individuals and the parties, favor incumbents by a threeto-one ratio...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989 25...
...The promised Republican cash never materialized...
...Nelson and Magleby would reduce the PAC contribution limit, and increase the limit for personal donations to $5,000 per election...
...I owed no creditors...
...I'd spoken in his bad ear...
...Ellen S. Miller, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, says the increasing flow of money and the decline in competitive races "raises the question of whether elections arebought or sold before the voting...
...I wasn't rich...
...Almost no one outside my hometown had ever heard of me...
...To be sure, the moment you start torelease funds, you will encounter new problems...
...I could taste it...
...But I had weaknesses, too...
...I fared better with the Vice President...
...See his article "So You Want to Reform Congress...
...The caller identified herself as working for the New Republic...
Vol. 22 • November 1989 • No. 11
