The Dash For Cash

March 31st was a great testing date. Campaigns on both sides of the political aisle made a major push to swell the record of campaign donations before the end of the first quarter.

There are three reasons for this. The first is that the way the political game is played in the United States requires very substantial war chests. This may be a shame, you may favor federal (and limited) funding for major campaigns, and you may decry this as “not cricket.” I would agree you’re right, but then we’re not playing cricket. Our political process is a game as money-drenched as baseball.

If you have any hope of changing the game you must first get elected playing the game that’s being played. Unjust? You bet, but there’s no point in kicking at the net.

The second reason for those war chests is that running at the national level is a very different sort of game from running for alderman, or even mayor. As constituencies get larger even solid grass roots campaigns become increasingly stressed, and the need for well-developed (and costly) field operations teams even greater. When former Tucson mayor Tom Volgy ran for Congress he honorably respected a pledge not to accept more than a fixed sum in campaign contributions. He came closer to victory than any former or subsequent challenger. What if he had accepted the additional funds on behalf of “one last push?” We’ll never know.

The third reason, and the one that is most anguishing to many grass roots campaigns, is that the Democratic and Republican national political organizations view the money-raising results as an indicator of “viability.” The breadth and strength of a particular campaign is measured by the number of donors on one hand and the amount of money raised on the other.

There seems to be no difference between the parties on this dash for the cash and all the political junkies anxiously await the FEC report.


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Short personal note: The Rogue Theatre production of “The Dead ‘ closed last night. Many of the members of the cast had been working together for more than nine months. Parting was not a particularly sweet sorrow and there was more than one glistening eye in the green room.
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