I want to draw your attention to a list of the ten most expensive SELF-FUNDED candidates for U.S. Senator and U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. The list, shown below, was also obtained from http://opensecrets.org/. These are the most recent totals as of this writing, a few days before election day:
Flinn, George S Jr (R) (Tennessee District 08) | $3,500,000 |
Rigell, Scott (R) (Virginia District 02) | $2,424,364 |
DelBene, Suzan (D) (Washington District 08) | $2,284,033 |
Ganley, Tom (R) (Ohio District 13) | $2,213,417 |
Altschuler, Randy (R) (New York District 01) | $2,010,213 |
Hartman, Wink (R) (Kansas District 04) | $1,995,025 |
Doheny, Matt (R) (New York District 23) | $1,690,000 |
Iott, Rich (R) (Ohio District 09) | $1,673,100 |
D'Annunzio, Tim (R) (North Carolina District 08) | $1,397,445 |
Moise, Rudolph (D) (Florida District 17) | $1,386,540 |
McMahon, Linda (R) (Connecticut Senate) | $46,600,161 |
Greene, Jeff (D) (Florida Senate) | $23,788,077 |
Johnson, Ron (R) (Wisconsin Senate) | $8,238,465 |
Pagliuca, Steve (D) (Massachusetts Senate) | $7,590,643 |
Binnie, William H (R) (New Hampshire Senate) | $6,587,594 |
Fiorina, Carly (R) (California Senate) | $5,511,080 |
Raese, John R (R) (West Virginia Senate) | $2,358,240 |
Blumenthal, Richard (D) (Connecticut Senate) | $2,269,607 |
Lowden, Sue (R) (Nevada Senate) | $1,939,065 |
Malpass, David (R) (New York Senate) | $1,600,500 |
Again, the amount of money spent by these candidates is only what they decided to spend out of their own pocket, and yes, these are DEEP pockets. WEALTHY pockets. These totals do not include contributions from anyone else.
I am not taking sides in any of these races. There's no point. But I will vote, because too many people suffered and died for me to not use the privilege to vote while we still have it. I invite you to google each of these people on the list and read about what they did before deciding to run for public office. For example:
- Linda McMahon, wife of Vince McMahon, majority owners of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the billion-dollar corporation, spent $15 million of her own money just to win the Republican nomination for Senator of Connecticut. She now also spent an additional $46 million to win the seat on Election Day. It's also of interest that her Democratic opponent, Richard Blumenthal, a long-time Attorney General in Connecticut, is also on the list, spending $2 million of his own money.
- George Flinn is, among other things, the President of Flinn Broadcasting in Tennessee. Flinn Broadcasting owns a network of radio stations, mostly in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, but also in California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, and Missouri. He, like Linda McMahon, has amassed substantial wealth. However, while the leading out-of-pocket spender for a congressional seat, his $3.5 million did not win his party's nomination.
Four things all of these people have in common:
- They are very wealthy, successful businesspeople. Duh.
- Because they are all successful businesspeople: they have a talent/skill for recognizing a good investment, and for knowing what expenses are worth the return on investment. None of them became wealthy throwing money around without a vision of how that investment would make them even more money and wealth in the long run.
- They felt it was worthwhile for them to spend millions of dollars to get elected.
- If they manage to get elected, their salary as a U.S. Senator or Representative will be $174,000 per year.
Clearly, these people are not running for public office for the paycheck --IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY. Maybe they want to do something to help the average American in their district or state? If you believe that, you should consider getting yourself into rehab asap.
These very wealthy people oddly have a huge DISADVANTAGE when it comes to trying to help the average American. Specifically, they do not have a clue about your NEEDS, or your PROBLEMS, or how difficult it has become to live a middle-class life style, let alone understand the woes of the poor. They don't have to shop for the best deals to save a few bucks, they hire someone to do that for them. They don't cook, they don't clean their toilets, and they don't worry about their job being outsourced. They don't worry about how they can afford to take care of their aging parents AND get their children through college. They don't worry about their pension being stolen by the company they worked hard for. They don't worry about having to choose between eating human food AND paying for their prescription. They don't worry about making the mortgage payment, or the car payment. They don't worry about their neighbors having hard times and losing THEIR homes, which causes neighborhood housing values to fall, and with it, their nest egg breaks and spills into the gutter. They don't worry about their credit rating.
These people can afford to put their kids in any school that will take them, they are not affected by public schools not having enough money to pay all the teachers or to keep all the schools open. These people ALWAYS have much MORE money than month. These people no longer have to work in the sense we do, in order to make money. These people can afford to spend millions to get elected and then hesitate to give to the local homeless shelter. These very wealthy people do not feel your pain any more than you or I feel the pain of a cockroach we shower with bug spray from a distance, and then walk away. These very wealthy people live on a different plane of existence from you and I. Your vote is more important to them than you ever will be, and once you've voted, your existence is of little consequence. They no longer send their sons and daughters off to fight wars, because it has become the task of the "have-nots" to defend the American way of life for the "haves."
And such is the sad truth, they pretend to care, say a few "feel good" catch phrases, bashing what their (often) wealthy opponent has said or done, but never committing to do anything positive to help the average American. For these people, getting elected is Job One. The return on their investment is not in that $174,000 per year paycheck, nor in the satisfaction of having done something to improve the lives of average Americans. The return on investment, their profit, what they get out of getting into that position of power is that they can pursue an agenda which best serves their own business enterprise. Maybe it's a matter of "deregulation," or perhaps a "tax-incentive" for certain industries. Maybe it's the influence they can now sell to "special interests" which may be several times their salary as a Senator or Congressman.
So what do you get for the man (or woman) who has everything? Sorry, it was a trick question... there's nothing you can give them. What they want they are in the process of taking for themselves -- ever greater power combined with ever decreasing accountability.