MONEY (AND POLITICS) IN BOTH PARTIES
Edsal, Thomas B.
Underlying the continuing financial advantage of the Republican party over the Democratic party are changes in the sources of cash for each party that have significant consequences for both...
...For the Republican party this may not be an unmixed blessing, because it suggests that the traditional view of the GOP as the party of the elite and of corporate America will gain additional legitimacy, at least in terms of the financial base of the party...
...Not only does the Democratic party receive far more money from 407 PACs, but, since the Democratic party raises far less money overall, the PAC contributions account for 18 percent of the party's budget, while for the GOP, PAC contributions amount to under 1 per cent of receipts...
...into such organizations as the National Conservative Political Action Committee...
...The Democrats, after making some fund-raising gains in recent years, are now falling further behind the GOP...
...The Democrats FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, money has increasingly become a force undermining coherence and commitment...
...There are, however, two developments working against the partial restoration of Republican power to the traditional establishment wing—a restoration advantageous to Bush...
...For the GOP, the changing pattern of fund-raising is more ambivalent, although key sources of money for both the party's right wing and for the conservative movement as a whole are drying up...
...Not only does the GOP have an overall financial advantage that translates quickly to clout on the critical terrain of contests involving challengers to incumbents, but money within the GOP functions to affirm the party's ideological and economic goals...
...The Republican party appears, to a certain extent, to have been able to gain broad favor among campaign contributors, an affluent elite who have been the major beneficiaries of both Republican tax policy and the rise in the stock market...
...The growing importance of New York-based money signals a strong core of support for an establishment candidate along the lines of Bush, just as the erosion of oil money means that conservative challengers to Bush have lost a potential source of support...
...The party desperately needs cash— its position relative to the GOP has worsened from a four-to-one disadvantage in 1983-84 to about sixtoone during the current election cycle—and party officials have responded to this pressure by turning to special interest groups...
...To compensate for this, the Democratic party has turned to two other sources of money: political action committees and a legally questionable form of contribution known as "soft money" (largely unreported donations made directly by corporations, unions, and by rich individuals who have already given the maximum amount allowed by federal law...
...Challengers have the most difficulty raising money but they are critical to any party attempting both to replenish normal losses and to win in all marginal contests...
...THE CONTRIBUTION PATTERNS POINT to a series of vicious circles for the Democratic party that do not appear likely to find resolution in the near future...
...The growing importance of money in elections works inherently to the advantage of Republicans: donors fall overwhelmingly in the top 20 percent of the income distribution, and it is there that allegiance to the Republican party is strongest...
...These oilmen poured their money into the campaigns of men and women challenging such liberal Democratic senators as Frank Church, John Culver and George McGovern...
...SIMILARLY, THE CHANGING BALANCE of contributions to the RNC—which are an excellent indicator of the kind of money available to prospective presidential candidates—suggests that challengers to Vice-President George Bush will have difficulty raising adequate funds...
...and into the Republican party...
...With the collapse of oil prices, dropping from $38 a barrel in 1981 to about $11 at this writing, the money and vitality of the oilmen have almost disappeared from the national political scene...
...There are no political contributions made from the group most loyal to the Democratic party—the bottom third of the income distribution—except insofar as labor contributions function to represent these voters...
...The GOP can make direct mail appeals to selected groups within this affluent universe (subscribers to the Wall Street Journal, holders of American Express Gold Cards) and expand its donor base through partisan and ideological appeals...
...Conversely, while money does not produce for the Republican party internal conflicts with anywhere near the depth of those of the Democratic party, the shifts occurring within the GOP suggest that some of the vitality may be draining from the conservative-Republican alliance...
...If the labor contributions are discounted, on the premise that labor shares broad goals with the Democratic party and is not seeking only to advance a special interest —a possibly questionable assumption in the case of some unions—the remaining PAC contributions still far exceed those going to the Republican party committees...
...As major contributors, the oilmen have been replaced in large part by the chairmen, presidents, and CEOs of large corporations...
...The second is the rise of California—where defense spending and trade with the Far East have produced a booming economy— as a source of major contributions...
...There is no other source of committed money willing to gamble on seemingly marginal conservative candidates in the same way that the oilmen were willing to take financialpolitical risks in 1980...
...The Democrats, in contrast, have developed a base of donors primarily interested in wielding influence with the party's incumbents, and with little or no interest in the partisan goal of strengthening Democratic challengers...
...For the conservative movement, and particularly for the groups and individuals attempting to convert the Republican party into an arm of that movement, the collapse of the oil industry is a disaster...
...While the chairmen and chief executive officers of major corporations are writing personal checks for $10,000 to the RNC because they agree with the broad economic goals of the GOP, their corporate PACs are writing $10,000 checks to the DNC and the DCCC to gain access to key members of the Democratic-controlled Ways and Means Committee...
...This is particularly true for Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a key Reagan backer since 1976, who is viewed as the most likely beneficiary of anti-Bush sentiments within the southwest wing of the Republican party...
...In fact, over the past six years, the northeast has eclipsed the southwest, to become once more a major source of large campaign contributions to the RNC...
...A third indicator of the strength of the lobbying community in the Democratic party is reflected in the geographic pattern of contributions to the two parties...
...Soft money contributions are generally unreported, but interviews with officials of both parties clearly point to much heavier Democratic than Republican dependence on this kind of contribution, roughly paralleling that on the PACs...
...More important, however, money is to a considerable extent a reflection of the internal balance of power within each party...
...Instead, the Democratic party must appeal to a universe of affluent liberals and special interest lobbyists, two groups with little or no stake in the adoption by the party of more aggressively populist strategies...
...For the Democratic party, however, money is ideologically divisive...
...Underlying the continuing financial advantage of the Republican party over the Democratic party are changes in the sources of cash for each party that have significant consequences for both policy and candidates...
...408...
...Insofar as old-guard, eastern interests are regaining strength, the party will lose the momentum that comes from new money hungry to gain recognized status in a process uniquely possible within the American political system...
...FOR THE NEAR FUTURE, then, money will continue to distort the ability of the Democratic party to represent its own constituency and to restrict the scope of elective strategies...
...Most of these candidates not only got large amounts of support from oil, but received it very early in their campaigns, when the need is highest...
...they were, within the GOP universe, what might be described as populists of wealth, financing the Reagan revolution...
...About 40 percent of the PAC contributions going to the Democratic party committees are from organized labor...
...The three major Democratic party committees—the national (DNC), congressional (DCCC) and senatorial (DSCC)--have so far in the current election cycle received a total of $4.5 million from political action committees, compared to the $993,000 in PAC money received by the parallel Republican committees...
...One of the driving internal forces within the Republican party has been the angry repudiation of Wall Street, the Rockefellers, and the eastern bankers who dominated the party through 1960, a repudiation led by the new rich of the sunbelt, particularly oilmen...
...The right-wing ideological allegiance of the industry dates back to at least the early 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy was viewed by Texas oilmen as their third senator...
...the kind of challenge that produced the 406 election not only of a conservative president, but provided the troops to back him up in the House and Senate...
...California is, in political money terms, a wild card...
...This has allowed the party to raise unprecedented amounts of money, but also to provide money and services to non-incumbent challengers...
...The period from 1978 through the early years of the Reagan administration saw, however, a massive outpouring of financial commitment by independent oilmen suddenly made very rich by decontrol and OPEC-induced price increases...
...In 1980, in addition to President Reagan's victory, we saw the election of such conservative Republican senators as Steve Symms of Idaho, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Mack Mattingly of Georgia, Paula Hawkins of Florida, Alfonse D'Amato of New York, Jeremiah Denton of Alabama, John East of North Carolina, along with a cadre of new GOP House members who became known as Reagan's Robots...
...The first is that the continued economic deterioration of the rust belt— the midwest industrial states—has meant a decline in money flowing from such states as Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio...
...For the Democrats, the direct mail donor base is far more restricted, limited effectively to affluent liberals in New York, Massachusetts, California, and academic communities scattered across the nation...
...From January 1, 1985, through June 30, 1986, just under 20 percent of the large contributions from individuals going to the DNC were from people in the Washington, D.C., area, the overwhelming majority of whom were lobbyists, lawyers, and corporate representatives...
...Under strained interpretations of federal election law, "soft money" can be used for major capital expenses—new buildings or computers— and for local party development in states where there are no restrictions on campaign contributions...
...In this respect, the patterns of contributions to both parties signal significant changes in direction...
...for the Republican National Committee just 7 percent of the contributions were from the D.C...
...FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, these oilmen wearing cowboy boots and diamond rings provided a kind of frontier toughness to a party traditionally dependent for large contributions on eastern bankers and Fortune 500 executives...
...At the same time, however, the doubling of stock market prices since Reagan took office has functioned to restore New York and the Northeast as a mainstay of financial support for the Republican party...
...the rest are from corporate and trade association PACs...
...In addition, it means that for the near future there is no financial base of support for the kind of conservative political challenge mounted in 1980...
...For the Democratic party, the pressure to raise money from the restricted sources available to it are functioning to push the party to the right...
...Although the state has a strong conservative movement, its donors have also shown a strong willingness to support candidates who, within the GOP ideological boundaries, are moderates, including the current Senate nominee, Ed Zschau, who outraised his conservative opponents in the primary, and Bush, whose political action committee has done very well in the state...
...area...
...In Oklahoma, the number of "Eagles"—individuals willing to give at least $10,000 a year to the Republican National Committee (RNC)—has dropped from 140 in 1981 to 15 in 1986...
...These states have in the past supported moderate Republican candidates, including George Bush, who in 1980 beat Reagan in both Iowa and Michigan...
...The movement toward a kind of pro-business, centrist Democratic strategy, reflected currently by the Democratic Leadership Council, has gained strength in part from the pressures on major Democratic fundraisers, seeking in many ways to develop a base within an essentially Republican constituency...
...THE RESULT IS THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, far more than the GOP, is dependent for survival on contributors who have little partisan or ideological interest in the party, but who do have a driving interest in gaining special legislative and administrative favors...
...In that light, while money may weaken the ability of the Democrats to put together a coherent challenge to the Republican party, the changing pattern of campaign contributions to the GOP is also undermining a source of strength within the GOP, which, for the moment, is likely to encourage a kind of ideological stasis between the two parties—with neither one able to capitalize decisively on changes in the economy, in the nation's demographics, and in the fluid political allegiances of the 1980s, to achieve permanent majority status...
...Independent oilmen in Texas, Oklahoma, and to a lesser extent in Louisiana and Colorado, have been the financial mainstay of the political right in this country...
Vol. 33 • September 1986 • No. 4
