It's About The Money, Stupid

[xoxoxoBruce]

An article at Salon about campaign finance . No surprise there every outlet runs through that regularly.
They talk about Congress critters spending more than half their time in office raising money. That's not news.
Then citizen's United, super PACs, and the big players. We know their names already.
After the usual fare, they get into some lesser know evils...

Super PAC money is disclosed. So when journalists and political pundits talk about “dark money,” don’t think of super PACs. Think of 501(c)(4) organizations, many of which appear to be set up principally to engage in politics.
Dubbed “social welfare organizations” by the IRS, 501(c)(4)s are tax-exempt groups that aren’t required to disclose where their money comes from—a significant fact when you consider that some of the more powerful groups spend tens of millions of dollars each election cycle to advance a single issue or candidate.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, “spending by organizations that do not disclose their donors has increased from less than $5.2 million in 2006 to well over $300 million in the 2012 presidential cycle and more than $174 million in the 2014 midterms.” The New York Times editorial page noted, mournfully, that the 2014 midterm elections were affected by “the greatest wave of secret, special-interest money ever raised in a congressional election.”

Hmm, a little end run around the people expressing outrage about super PACs and big buck manipulators
Lastly they touch on what I've been grousing about all along, fertilizing the grass roots.

State and local ballot measures attract some of the most deep-pocketed out-of-state business interests and individuals. In 2012, the amount that groups backing or opposing ballot measures raised approached $1 billion, an all-time high. In 2014, a mere fifty donors pumped $266 million into such efforts. More than three quarters of the donors were corporations.

Super PACs are also getting involved in city council and even school board elections across the country. A super PAC called the Committee for Economic Growth and Social Justice filed papers in Washington and promptly sent more than $150,000, funded largely by the bail bond industry, to unseat several members of a school board in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The PAC reportedly was launched by a state senator who wanted to kick his longtime rivals off the board.

Oh yeah, that sounds like the domain of Christie the bridge buffoon.
You heard it folks, the fucking school board. Do you even know who's on your local school board?
They're the itty bitty politicians who spend the vast majority of your local tax dollars.

[Undertoad]

Smaller campaigns are never won by money. School board positions are won by a hundred votes, by knowing a lot of people. Township and smaller city council positions are won by getting on the ballot for the right party. If you spend $1000 it's unusual. There's no advertising or materials involved because they would not be useful.

Even for congressional races the advertising always looks poorly spent. Last cycle I saw ads for NJ congressmen on the news. That's money wasted in the 5th largest media market, no advertiser spends on television where only a small fraction of the audience can use the product.

And any higher, we are in 50-50 land. Everyone knows how they are going to vote before the money enters the race. The money is chasing the last 5% of undecided voters and they are not engaged. So WTF.

I heard people are angry at the presidential election because money isn't getting them anything.

Something else is going on

[xoxoxoBruce]

Every cycle my mailbox get stuffed with junk mail, not for the town council, but for the school board, even when half of them are on the ballot for both parties. The only other one is state rep.
It's not a homogeneous community where people even recognize local residents, but I think that's becoming more common in bedroom communities. If everything you do is out of town, the only thing left is church or kids activities to bring you in contact with others. Norman Rockwell has gone the way of sword fighting and knickers.

[Undertoad]

If you can't remember their name on the way into the voting booth... and I'll wager 95% of us can't name one school board rep or township commissioner... all the money spent to get that stuff to you is wasted. Money spent, no votes gotten. How's it really work?

Well we do know, if you get those, that a lot of people got paid. A consultant got paid. The campaign has at least one staffer. Someone designed the piece. A printer got work out of it.

The PARTY MACHINERY got paid is what.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Norman Rockwell has gone the way of sword fighting and knickers.

Come over here and say that, muther fu....

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ha ha ha, I knew that was coming, just have to wait for Sundae's comeback on knickers, to pass my clairvoyant exam.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You don't scare me sword swinger, I'll tell Aunt Maxine and Aunt Janice on you.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

If you can't remember their name on the way into the voting booth... and I'll wager 95% of us can't name one school board rep or township commissioner... all the money spent to get that stuff to you is wasted. Money spent, no votes gotten. How's it really work?

All they need is for you to half-remember the name when you're looking at the ballot. "I've heard of them" is a pretty common voting selection method.

[Undertoad]

Back when I was reading Campaigns and Elections, they said you need on average 70 occurrences of seeing someone's name before that takes effect.


But one handshake will do, hence a winning local campaign walks the precincts door-to-door on the four weekends before the election. It's FREE! (But it's hard work.)

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You don't scare me sword swinger, I'll tell Aunt Maxine and Aunt Janice on you.

Women's foil is rapidly becoming an American game. My kid fenced a bunch of girls in Jersey who are now world beaters.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nobody is walking anywhere around here. The times they are a changing.
The challenge now is getting people to bother to vote. By the time the PA primary comes around it may be inconsequential nationally, and the local outcomes are already fixed, so getting Jr to his music lesson or watching the latest episode of Total Divas in more important.

[Undertoad]

The local elections in PA happen in off-years from the Presidential election. The odd years.

Nobody votes in them, and nobody asks you if you're voting in them, and nobody tells you what a bad person you are for not voting in them.

Money does nothing there... but those consultants need to make money in the odd years too. So let's keep that money train a-rolling people.

[glatt]

Same here, but I always vote in them. It's very convenient for me because my polling place is directly on my path to the metro station. And I figure my vote will never be more powerful than when it's just 10,000 of us deciding the outcome. My vote in presidential elections has virtually no power.

[xoxoxoBruce]

He's right.

[BigV]

You're right, he's right.