THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR: Shutting Out the Social Right
Carney, Timothy P.
THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR TIMOTHY P. CARNEY Shutting Out the Social Right W HEN THE SUPREME COURT upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law conventional wisdom was that Democrats, who rely far...
...If the platform doesn't mirror the Eisenbergs, Arnalls and Perenchios, their impact can be seen often in what doesn't happen...
...And Pioneers and Rangers are not likely to be middle-class working Republicans...
...In 2002, Haim and Cheryl Saban gave $9.4 million to federal election campaigns, more than anyone else...
...Liberal and pro-homosexual pundits and politicians took to the airwaves and op-ed pages of the country exalting the decision...
...The RNC's broad donor base is not easily transferable to conservative 527s...
...Turns out if wealthy individuals cannot give tens of thousands of dollars to parties, they can get dozens of their rich friends to give a few thousand dollars...
...These benefactors of "reform" are diverse in whom they vote for and their stances on taxes...
...1 OWEVER, THE INFLUENCE of the socially liberal cash cows does show...
...The Ranger and Pioneer lists are replete with the likes of Perenchio, the Arnalls, and Eisenberg...
...That pull has to date been balanced against the Southern and Midwestern conservative voters who form the electoral base of the party...
...The anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-gay marriage Red State voters form the base of the Republican Party and are empowered, to some extent, by their sway over that party—their capital is their vote...
...The Arnalls' gifts in 2002 were either soft money cash piles to the GOP or $2,000 checks to individual liberal politicians...
...In fact, the top nine individual contributors in the last election cycle gave exclusively to Democrats...
...Christie Todd Whitman and got his job because of his deep roots into the wealthiest circles on the East Coast...
...Despite the Democrats' class-warfare rhetoric, the left is where the money is...
...32 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 2004...
...The Bush campaign has created titles of honor for backers who can bundle enough $2,000 contributions for the reelection effort...
...In other words, among the very wealthy empowered by McCain-Feingold, Republicans have a comparable number of patrons as Democrats, and free markets have about as many advocates as big government...
...Conservative advocacy groups do not have that sort of advantage...
...A look at the financing of the 2004 election so far makes clear what was utterly predictable before the bill's passage: money is still pouring into the race, but through different paths...
...Carl Lindner, one of the most generous GOP donors, gives mostly to pro-life candidates as well as to National Right to Life...
...Paul Allen, America's third richest man, has given over $150,000 to Democrats over the past three cycles, and no reported gifts to Republicans...
...Friends with liberal Republican former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, Perenchio, a Pioneer, gives to California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League...
...It's important to understand what kind of wealthy Republicans have been bankrolling the GOP candidates...
...As pro-lifers and Red-Staters, they are anomalies among Republican sugar daddies...
...With parties unable to accept giant contributions to use for issue ads, non-party entities have been formed to take their place...
...Ironically, those leftwing 527s are bankrolled by the same billionaires, such as financier George Soros, who agitated for McCainFeingold...
...So, by elevating 527s over parties, McCain-Feingold gives the very wealthy yet another leg up on the grassroots...
...The real losers are likely to be the Red State cultural conservatives and the beliefs they hold dear—specifically, the pro-life and anti-gay marriage causes which most big political givers cannot abide...
...Lindner, together with fellow top GOP donor Richard Farmer, lives in Cincinnati...
...Jerrold Perenchio, Hollywood producer, exemplifies this type...
...A party, unlike a 527, needs a mass of voters who agree with its stances...
...A good prototype is Lew Eisenberg, the finance chairman for the Republican National Party...
...Every single dime went to the Democrats...
...People enthusiastic about protecting abortion, banning guns, and promoting gay marriage are fewer, but wealthier...
...On social issues, however, they stand firmly to the left of the American public, and will play an ever increasing role in calling the shots...
...Republican moneybags come from the same Central Park West circles where cultural conservatism is gauche, but a free-market philosophy is tolerated...
...Political advocacy groups—called 527s in reference to the section of the tax code that covers them—such as Americans Coming Together (ACT) and MoveOn.org are playing an unprecedented role in 2004...
...In 2000, the ratios were similar...
...Wealthy Democrats tend to be liberal both economically and culturally...
...The RLC wants Republicans to set aside social issues—abortion and homosexual marriage...
...In the 2002 cycle alone, staunchly pro-choice EMILY's list invested over $2.3 million in politics—all of it going to Democrats...
...The voter base for the most part cares more about social issues than does the donor base, and so in intramural GOP squabbles the right, for the most part, wins...
...Of course, the picture is a mixed one...
...This, in turn, gives a huge boost to the cultural left...
...But the party cannot alienate cultural conservatives altogether—it relies on their votes...
...Among other critical differences, special interest groups depend solely on money for their survival...
...This bundling of contributions, long a part of campaign finance, has now become hugely important...
...These socially liberal Republicans have had some sway in the GOP, which depends on them for their cash...
...Big money for the right is ambivalent on social issues...
...This notion, however, ignores the enhanced roles the new major players will play...
...The top five pro-life groups combined (Susan B. Anthony List, National Pro-Life Alliance, Right to Life, Republican National Coalition for Life, and the Pro-Life Campaign Committee) spent less than half a million, all told...
...There is some balance...
...The pro-life plank is one of the sturdiest in the Republican platform...
...Raise $100,000 for Bush's reelection and you become a "Pioneer...
...It is hard to imagine the same people who fund liberals Katrina Swett and Jane Harman cutting checks to National Right to Life or the NRA...
...But President Bush spoke not a word in defense of his state's laws, nor in criticism of the activist judiciary...
...Warren Buffett, Gates' financial runner up, has given $13,000 to Democratic candidates and only $1,600 to Republicans...
...EVISITING THE ARNALLS—the only couple in R2 002's top ten contributors who gave anything o the GOP—confirms this pattern...
...But as McCain-Feingold takes hold—as the parties are weakened—the influence of Red State morality will atrophy...
...Last June, the U.S...
...The Republican Party is torn between two masters: the donor base (liberal) and the voter base (conservative...
...For those groups to hunt down GOP donors is a good deal harder than for the directors of liberal 527s to make a couple of phone calls to the wealthy liberals in New York and Seattle...
...A 527 needs only a few rich folk who like it...
...Joseph Sandler, a DNC lawyer, told the Atlantic that the bill "emasculates the parties to the benefit of narrow-focus special interest groups...
...Cultural conservatives will be the biggest losers, because the new law redistributes political clout from the silent majority to the wealthy few...
...Eisenberg is far from a conservative...
...Emasculating the parties in favor of special interest groups disenfranchises voters and boosts the influence of big-dollar donors or well-connected CEOs who can bundle hundreds of thousands...
...Ifs important to understand what kind of wealthy Republicans have been bankrolling the GOP candidates...
...Parties, with their vast databases, are better able than small groups to gather thousands of smaller contributions...
...Multibillionaire George Soros, has reportedly pledged $15 million to ACT and MoveOn.org to defeat President Bush...
...The Walton family, which fills out much of the balance of the top-10 list, gives primarily, though not exclusively, to Republicans...
...Far more so than the parties, 527s are funded by the very rich...
...Hence, it draws an uneasy line at homosexual marriage...
...Although now a Pioneer, he personally contributed to Democrats as well as Republicans, helped bankroll the Republican Pro-Choice PAC and the culturally liberal Republican Leadership Council (RLC), whose stated mission is to wrest control of the GOP back from "an intolerant vocal minority that divides the GOP...
...Number ten, Roland and Dawn Arnall, favored Republicans slightly with 65 percent of their cam-paign largess...
...So on social issues, the Republican Party is torn between two masters: the donor base (liberal) and the voter base (conservative...
...To understand how the increased importance of the wealthy affect who wins and loses, we need to look at who the wealthy givers are and what they stand for...
...On this question, Democrats win overwhelmingly...
...But again, those are party lines, not ideological lines...
...Neither did Washington's second most powerful Republican, fellow Texan Tom DeLay...
...Eisenberg, a New Jerseyian, was a close associate of former Gov...
...MORE TO THE POINT than where Bill Gates's money is going, where are the most politically active rich Americans putting their money...
...Timothy P. Carney is a reporter for syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak...
...Thomas Mclnerny, also in the top ten Republican donors last cycle, serves on the executive committee of the Republican Leadership Council...
...But very few of the richest Americans appear on the rolls of National Right to Life and the NRA...
...The Arnalls (Rangers) gave large gifts to the RNC, and then thousands to liberal Democratic candidates...
...So with these new rules, Bush and his foes still get the necessary campaign funds...
...On abortion, gay marriage, and gun control the left has survived by having the wealthy on its side, while the right gets its support from the grassroots...
...Double that, and you're a "Ranger," with all the complimentary dinner tickets and other perks that honor brings...
...Political parties, in order to stay relevant, need to have their candidates win elections...
...THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR TIMOTHY P. CARNEY Shutting Out the Social Right W HEN THE SUPREME COURT upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law conventional wisdom was that Democrats, who rely far more on the "soft money" the bill bans, would be crippled...
...In fact, no visible Republican elected official in Washington stepped into the spotlight to decryLawrence...
...Almost the only official voice on the right to speak up was Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who accused the court of "takingsides in the culture war" against Americans who "do not want persons who engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as teachers in their children's schools, or as boarders in their homes...
...From the top 12 individual donors in the 2002 campaign, Democrats roped in an aggregate of nearly $35 million while the GOP got less than $1 million...
...FEBRUARY 2004 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 31 THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR Most big benefactors of the GOP do not hail from the middle of the country but live in New York and California...
...Supreme Court grabbed a little more power for Washington and for the judiciary, ruling in Lawrence v. Texas that state laws banning sodomy violated fundamental constitutional rights...
...Meanwhile, the Democrats' bankrollers are on the far left of their party, too...
...Scalia's voice was so lonely because the party that represents culturally conservative Americans is beholden to New York and Hollywood money...
...In the ongoing tug-of-war for partisan control, the results of this law will be mixed—each party has its Plan B. But in the deeper struggles—the battles over ideas and policies—the winners and losers can be divided up more neatly...
...If the 527s play a larger role in 30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 2004 TIMOTHY P. C.%1INEY politics, the rich gain influence...
...Since the 1998 elections, Bill Gates, the richest man in America, has given three times as much money to Democrats as to Republicans...
...Now these folks will not be able to direct their money to the parties in large amounts, but they can direct their money to the proxies of the parties—the liberal 527s...
...Imagine defending sodomy laws at a Georgetown cocktail party fundraiser...
...big money for the left is fully engaged in the culture war...
...The McCain-Feingold law shifts influence from the parties to the special interests—both 527s and the well-connected...
Vol. 37 • February 2004 • No. 1
