Campaigns' shocking gold rush may boost calls for reform

Campaigns' shocking gold rush may boost calls for reform
Bt LAURA WASHINGTON
Copyright by The Chicago Sun Times
April 9, 2007

They're off to the races again. The politicians are trotting out the spiels and padding the silver linings of their campaign coffers. By the March 31 fund-raising deadline, Hillary Clinton had raised $26 million, Barack Obama, just a hair short of that. Mitt Romney grabbed $20 million, Rudy Giuliani, $15 million. Fading war hawk John McCain brought in a paltry $12.5 million.

Big Bill "Why can't we have him back" Clinton may have dubbed this March Madness as the "first primary." It feels like a stickup to me. Our political leaders kneel before the golden calf and besot themselves with filthy lucre. This stampede for the green should reinforce voter cynicism and disgust. Money, however, always preempts message.

At least they are good at spinning it. Just listen to Clinton's minions cooing about their big score. Her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, told reporters she was "completely overwhelmed and gratified by the historic support we've gotten." History is a wonderful thing.

The New Man From Hope can spin with the best of them. Obama's people boast of pulling in 100,000 donors, with $6.9 million coming from the Internet. It's a sign, they say, that the electorate is deeply yearning for a new type of politics. Penny Pritzker, Obama's finance chair and Hyatt Hotel magnate, intoned: "This overwhelming response, in only a few short weeks, shows the hunger for a different kind of politics in this country and a belief at the grass-roots level that Barack Obama can bring out the best in America to solve our problems."

The best, no doubt, is yet to come. That's certainly McCain's new mantra. The co-author of the revolutionary McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform has found himself in the dubious position of having to apologize for his lousy showing in the money marathon. In the loony world of money and politics, a candidate who raises "only" $12.5 million in three months is flirting with irrelevancy. So the campaign is jamming McCain's spring schedule with the mother lode of cash calls.

Don't despair. A veteran finance reform advocate says there is indeed a silver lining. Last week's numbers are "shocking," says Larry Hansen, a vice president for the Joyce Foundation, a staunch supporter of campaign finance reform. He adds, however, candidates trolling for smaller donations on the Internet is good for democracy. "When you get more people involved, it diminishes the influence" of wealthy donors, Hansen says. "The debate about public financing will gain steam because of what's happening now."

Here's another good thing. Thanks to the Big Box debate, the tide may be turning in the moribund Chicago City Council. The April 17 aldermanic runoffs have served up a cornucopia of financial peccadilloes. The labor unions are showering key candidates with big cash. That means some do-nothing aldermen who have been perennially snoozing their way to re-election may finally get booted off the public dole.

The unions are leveling the playing field long dominated by Mayor Daley's cash machine and the largess of his developer chums. Labor already has doled out a whopping $388,000 to 16th Ward challenger Joann Thompson. Pat Dowell in the 4th Ward has raised at least $150,000 from the unions, about 70 percent of her total contributions.

Lest we forget -- unions represent workers -- actual constituents who deserve representation. That's a silver lining I can live with.
LauraSWashington@aol.com