Iowan Shares Some Scary Thoughts Well Before Halloween

One of the little considered consequences of the higher concentration of wealth in a few hands seems to be the increase in self-funded campaigns. We are not talking about your neighbor spending a thousand bucks to print some signs as he runs for city council. No, what we are talking about here is big time elected offices – president, governor, congress.

In recent years there have been some well-known, self-funded candidates. They stuck out like sore thumbs because it was so unusual that someone would have THAT kind of money. Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, and 4 years ago Mitt Romney all self-funded to a large degree as they sought the presidency.

This year we have a veritable plethora of self-funders. A whole lot of people who have so much money they can’t spend it all. California has two in Meg Whitman for governor and Carly Fiorina for senate. Florida also had a couple self-funders in Rick Scott and Jeff Greene. Connecticut has wrestling honcho Linda McMahon in a bid for the US Senate.

I am probably missing some. The point is that it appears that the very, very rich now have enough money that they seem to think they can buy the office itself rather than messing with buying shares in a politician. I guess this way they can guarantee that they will get their way.

I could go into each in turn, but I think most of you know that the lot of them are not what we normally consider good citizens – I don’t think any cared one whit about politics except when a policy affected their interests. But now, with the exception of Jeff Greene, each has a shot at making decisions that will greatly affect you and I and our children and grandchildren.

And like climate change, I expect this trend to increase. Money continues to concentrate at the top and wealthy individuals are used to getting their way. Put lots of money with a desire for power and bingo! We will have more and more of the extremely wealthy trying to buy a seat in congress or the governor’s mansion.

Note also that California, Florida and Connecticut are among the most expensive states to run in. Whitman has already spent at least $120 million in the primary and she has plenty more where that came from. Heck, with that kind of cash in Iowa she could have bought the governorship, both senate seats and probably all the representative seats.

This is a really scary trend – especially coupled with what is considered either the worst or second worst Supreme Court decision ever last February in FEC v. Citizens United. Together, self-funded candidates and third party unregulated “issue” oriented groups could be the lethal cocktail that put the end to our current form of democracy.

Maybe this is what Reagan and his appropriately named economist, Arthur Laffer, had in mind for the trickle down economy. Instead of advertising, the wealthy office seeker can just blow into town and hand out personal checks for $10,000 or so to the poor and middle class (if there is one) for their votes.

BTW, Arthur Laffer still lives. While his dream economy never happened, many think that what pieces were put into place helped lead to our current state. But Mr. Laffer is not done yet. He is working hard to keep tax cuts for the rich – the Meg Whitmans and Carly Fiorinas.

It would sure help his cause if there were some votes in congress he could truly rely on.


~Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.”  An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty, Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.”