Can the Rich Buy Our Governments?

by Rick Mitchell

Unfortunately, it seems to be increasingly possible for anyone with enough money to buy a position as a governor, a senator, or even President. In California, we have had our share of rich aspirants to public office, and their treasure troves of funding (often based largely on a willingness to spend portions of their own personal wealth) have made political races more and more exercises of spending more money than the other guy. The resulting barrage of relentless and inane TV commercials has done little to promote discourse and discussion of important public issues (to say the very least). And we all know by now that the challenge of fundraising to support such campaigns has spawned a permanent and growing industry of managers, consultants, and public relations people who work with professional fundraisers 24/7 to finance the next election campaign.

It seems to make no difference what party or cause is involved. Right now, according to the morning paper, the Democratic Party is deep into a contest between Phil Angelides, current state Treasurer and leader in the polls, and Steve Westly, state Controller and former eBay executive. Both want to be the state's next governor. And Mr. Westly is apparently willing to spend enormous sums of his own money to try to make it happen. You have probably seen one of his TV ads (if you've been watching TV at all) -- he is reported to have spent nearly $22.5 million already on a primary election that is still over two months away.

Westly has raised 50% more than Angelides, his opponent in the primary, and has a total of over $23 million on hand going into the last ten weeks of the primary campaign, compared to Mr. Angelides' $14.5 million of resources. The incumbent, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has less than $4 million but is raising money fast since he is effectively unopposed as of now.

Has your phone been ringing with political telemarketers (apparently immune to or blind to the "do-not-call" lists) asking for a contribution to one or more (or all) of these candidates? The above figures could have a lot to do with the reason why. Sad to say, we seem to have developed a political Golden Rule -- that whoever has the gold rules -- in most places these days, and who wins is largely dependent on who can raise and spend the most money on TV, radio, and newspaper ads, as well as those eternal, infernal telemarketers.

What can one do? Obviously, those of us who may favor Angelides (his supporters include both incumbent U. S. Senators Boxer and Feinstein) could make another contribution to his campaign. Angelides boasts of having over 22,000 individual contributors. And both he and Westly can put more money from their own pockets into their campaigns, as both of them are multi-millionaires (though Angelides is said to have put none of his own money into his campaign as yet). Westly's tax returns indicate that he has made $225 million over the past eight years. His campaign has relied so far on mostly his own private wealth, with slightly over $1 million coming from others so far.

California political campaigns are always interesting, and the (noisy) volume of TV ads has become impossible to ignore in recent years. But these things take money, that's for sure. In 1998, Al Checchi, an airline "mogul," spent $40 million of his own money unsuccessfully trying to win the Democratic nomination for governor. He was beat by life-long professional politico Gray Davis -- who turned out to be no match for another super-rich guy named Ken Lay, of Enron fame -- who decided he also wanted to run the state (or maybe that be "ruin" the state).

So, perhaps the answer to this date is "Yes, it is possible to buy the government if you're rich enough" -- one way or another. I don't know about you, but I'd like to see laws passed to make that much more difficult -- whether by inundating political campaigns with money or by performing allegedly criminal manipulation of energy prices!

Can we know who is most likely to act in a statesmanlike manner if elected? Probably not, or usually not, but if being less power-hungry on a personal level is any indication, I think Angelides definitely has shown more restraint in his pursuit of the governorship than either Schwarzenegger ("Mr. Special Election") or Westly. This may be similar to the choice voters had in 1998 between Checchi and Davis. As it turned out, Mr. Davis proved that you have to have more than just good intentions -- but many (including Senators Feinstein and Boxer) do think he has the needed qualifications to lead the state effectively and efficiently.

His website is www.angelides.com and yes, Virginia, there is a link to contribute!!