In a comment to an earlier post Liza said, “I'm already sick of hearing of about Giffords and her 570K. I can sympathize, Liza, because there are other things we should be talking about, but we are going to be hearing a lot about every candidate’s money before November.
The reason is simple, if unpalatable. Despite our faith (some of it justified) in the power of the grass roots, you can’t win an election on volunteers alone.
A hard core cadre of volunteers is invaluable to any political campaign. By “hard core” I mean a group that can give twenty hours or more to the campaign each week, running the headquarters, coordinating the work of other volunteers, assisting in research, mail targeting, and assisting any professional staff the campaign may have hired.
My judgement is that almost any campaign will be able to attract such a group of true believers, fifteen or twenty perhaps, willing to work themselves virtually to the point of exhaustion for their candidate. A vastly greater number of volunteers will be attracted, of course, but my experience has been that while they may walk a neighborhood, or assist in getting a mailing out, the best of them are not likely to do this more than once or twice.
Consider for just a moment the statistics for CD-8
Active voters:
Democratic: 132,894
Libertarian: 2,560
Republican: 151,794
Other: 99,780
Total: 387,028
Inactive voters:
Democratic: 7,546
Libertarian: 253
Republican: 7,855
Other: 7,417
Total: 23,071
Total voters:
Democratic: 140,440
Libertarian: 2,813
Republican: 159,649
Other: 107,197
Total: 410,099
(Let’s also remember that CD-8 is spread out over parts of four counties. In densely populated urban districts you might get 650,000 people spread across thirty to fifty square blocks, at least in principle within walking distance.)
In November, if we hope to gain control of the House and make the first steps toward election reform, we have to try to influence Democrats, Others, Libertarians, and some disaffected Republicans. We also have to be able to respond to Republican attack ads. None of this is cheap and none of it can be done by volunteers alone walking neighborhoods...as much needed and useful as that is. Sad, perhaps…but true.
Note: Thanks to research librarian SW for locating this data on the Secretary of State’s site. Link
3 comments:
I think we have created a system where the most organized, the most networked, and the most effective fundraiser wins. How cool is that? I guess its great if those are the credentials most needed for Congress.
Get real. There are life and death issues to consider and we're talking life and death on a huge scale. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. If you don't think so, go back and read the statistics on the first Gulf War. Time has a way of shedding light on what really happens in these wars as documents are declassified, witnesses start to speak, people get sick and die, and statisticians compile the data. Try to get your mind around what we are eventually going to find out about the war in Iraq.
Do any of you vote based on an "endorsement"? If so, God help us.
We need a representative in Congress with a strong background in US foreign policy and who has the guts to speak out about the ill fated direction we are going. The best candidate in the CD8 race is Jeff Latas.
And, by the way, I'm not working on the Latas campaign. This is just my opinion. I like to read and think for myself and I don't put much stock in endorsements.
Vetdem,
Just to be fair, I have heard Latas speak at least five times and he is very articulate about US foreign policy. Maybe he spent some of his free time studying history?
Endorsements are usually given by special interest groups to the candidates who will promote their special interest. I think this is very different from identifying the "most qualified" candidate.
I think its great for you that your favorite CD8 candidate is doing so well with endorsements and has so much money. I wish that my favorite candidate could compete with your favorite, but that's going to be hard to do, isn't it? Quite frankly, I would like to see a level playing field. Maybe "clean elections" at the national level?
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