Oct. 30, 1999
By
Patrick Thornton
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake
University
DES MOINES, Iowa -- John Lennon once wrote that "money can't buy everything indeed, but what it can't get baby, I don't need." Anyone who is following campaign 2000 might be tempted to apply that Lennon maxim to politics today.
In the last two months, two Republican presidential candidates, Dan Quayle and Elizabeth Dole, have dropped out of the race. Both candidates said that they could not raise enough money to keep up with front-runner Gov. George W. Bush. Gerry Geipel, Quayle's communications director in Iowa, said simply, "How can you beat $80 million with $2 million or $3 million? It's getting to the point where the only way a candidate can win his or her party's nomination is if they are the anointed front-runner or have a personal fortune."
Dennis Goldford, associate professor of politics and international relations at Drake University, said that money is a double-edged sword in a political campaign. "A potential candidate needs to raise enough money to get his foot in the door of any campaign," Goldford said. "But in order to get that money, he needs to convince people that he has a legitimate shot to win. Nobody wants to support a candidate that can't win."
Goldford said that as the campaign progressed, potential contributors recognized that Dole and Quayle did not stand much of a chance against Bush. "As a result, when Quayle or Dole came calling, they found no one was willing to give them any money. To blame their demise on money sounds to me like sour grapes," he said.
Still, there is a mounting public perception among the voting public that politics today is less about issues and more about fund raising, said Maureen Monahan, Sen. Bill Bradley's press secretary in Iowa. "Sen. Bradley has raised enough money so far to compete with Gore until the end," she said. "Money allows a candidate to get their message across to the voting public, which is the most important thing in any election."
Bradley has made campaign finance reform a top issue in his 2000 campaign. "It is going to be more difficult for Sen. Bradley to win because he has refused to accept PAC money," Monahan said. "But he feels strongly that the political process has been perverted, and it is time to bring campaigns back to the people."
In 1976 the Supreme Court changed the way political contributions were made in the United States in the case of Buckley vs. Valeo. With the ruling, the court said political contributions were a form a free speech and were protected under the First Amendment. The federal government does not have the right to limit how much money a citizen can donate to a political candidate. The decision did limit how much money a candidate can spend on his or her own campaign.
Steve Forbes has used a great deal of his own money to keep up with Bush in the 2000 race. Bill Dalcol, his Iowa campaign manager, said Forbes is using his own resources in an attempt to level the playing field.
"The problem with the election process at the national level today is that they favor incumbents and insiders," Dalcol said. "The bureaucrats and the media are in charge. They tell us who will be seen as a viable candidate. Steve is in a position where he can make up some of the ground by spending some of his own money on ads, but the current political system today doesn't leave a candidate with too many other options."
Dalcol said that Forbes is pushing for a prompt disclosure of all the campaign contributions a candidate receives. "If we open up a candidate's books, we can open up the whole political process to the public and let the voters decide," Dalcol said. "A candidate should have nothing to hide from the public when it comes to who they get their money from."
A candidate needs more than money to win a campaign, said Jud Lounsbury, Vice President Al Gore's press secretary in Iowa. "The voting public still wants a candidate with a good message who will run an issue-based campaign," Lounsbury said. "Vice President Gore has made it his top priority to be meeting people on the campaign trail and articulating his vision for America. A candidate needs to run a good grassroots campaign to be successful. I think Bush will realize this if he hasn't already."
Lounsbury worked on Sen. Russ Feingold's campaign in Wisconsin. "In 1998, we were outspent almost three to one, but Feingold stuck to the issues and the intelligent voters were able to sift through all of the ads and distractions and elect the right candidate. We held out long enough financially and got the support we needed on election day," he said.
Dalcol said he believes the same discussion about campaign fund raising will be had until something is done to fix the problem permanently. "The problem most of the candidates face on both sides is that they are competing for the same finite number of potential contributors, and those can dry up in a hurry. Still, this conversation is way overplayed and it comes up in every election cycle. I don't think that many people honestly believe an election can be bought," Dalcol said.