It’s About the Community!

Study Shows GOP Fundraising Edge Is Slipping; By Greg GirouxCQ Politics.com

According to Congressional Quarterly;

In the first 18 months of the 2005-06 campaign cycle, the six major national party campaign committees reported raising a combined $574 million, of which $334 million, or 58 percent, was collected by the GOP organizations: the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee(NRCC).

Their Democratic counterparts — the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) — raised $240 million, or 42 percent, of the two-party total.

While the GOP advantage is substantial, it is actually smaller than the Republicans’ edge at a similar point in the competitive 2004 campaign. At the 18-month mark of that campaign cycle, the party’s three committees collected $385 million and the Democrats took in $230.6 million (63 percent to 37 percent). The GOP committees, through June in this cycle, raised about $51 million less than in 2004, while the Democrats raised about $9 million more.

“What these figures suggest is that both parties are continuing to demonstrate financial strength in the midterm cycle, and that both parties are continuing to benefit from this highly partisan and polarized environment, which is conducive to party fundraising — but that the Democrats are doing much better on a relative basis than has been the case in other recent midterm elections,” said Anthony Corrado, a government professor and campaign finance expert at Maine’s Colby College.

The shift was even more pronounced in the Senate committees’ fundraising, with the Democrats emerging with a substantial advantage. In the first 18 months of the 2005-06 election cycle, individuals donors gave $145.1 million to Democratic Senate candidates and $102.3 million to Republican Senate candidates — a bigger edge for the Democrats than in 2004, when the parties’ Senate candidates were much closer to parity in such contributions.

The same filing revealed that Majority Action recently received contributions of $120,000 from George Soros, the liberal billionaire financier who also heavily backed liberal 527 groups in the 2004 presidential election, and $100,000 from Linda Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune who is also a generous Democratic Party
donor.

One busy Republican-aligned 527 is the Economic Freedom Fund, which has aired television ads attacking Reps. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia and Jim Marshall of Georgia in their home districts.

Comment: This is really the first year I have looked at the nation-wide senate races strongly; due mostly to my interest in repealing the 17th Amendment, but it seems to me that there is a huge amount of outside support and influence contributing to the current 2006 Senate races.

While I am opposed to any restrictions on campaign contributions –it violates the 1st Amendment- the obvious is that something has to be done to control this outside influence and the staggering amounts of money being spent on these campaigns. We are at a point where special interest groups have more influence over the Senate than the people that elect them. We certainly find this in a number of Senate races, such as the ones in Washington, Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut, Virginia and Maryland.

By repealing the 17th Amendment every community in every state would have the opportunity to elect their senator. In truth, it was about the “communities.” The towns, districts, and boroughs, of this country electing our officials. Look at it this way, a community sends their representative to the U.S. House of Representatives, while at the same time ones community representative in thier repective General Assembly or State Legislature elected their representative for the U.S. Senate. So in actuality, it was the community that elected the majority of government officials; not the state as whole or in our example the special interest groups. It all about the community and until we turn back the 17th Amendment we will see a further erosion of our communities.

Senate primary seeks money in D.C

Winner of Wash. GOP Senate primary seeks money in D.C.; By MATTHEW DALY; AP

WASHINGTON -- A day after winning the Republican nomination for a Washington state U.S. Senate seat, Mike McGavick flew to the other Washington to attend a series of fundraisers, including a $1,000 per person reception sponsored by the National Mining Association.

In a flurry of events aimed at kicking off the general election campaign against Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell, McGavick was also guest of honor Wednesday at a $500-a-person reception hosted by the GOP senatorial campaign committee and a $1,000-per-plate dinner at a Capitol Hill restaurant.

The afternoon reception featured White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C, chairwoman of the GOP campaign group, while the dinner was headlined by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Many Republican senators also were invited.

The fundraising didn't stop there. McGavick was scheduled to appear Thursday with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, at a $250-per-person lunch near the Capitol.

McGavick's spokesman, Elliott Bundy, said the fundraising blitz was needed to balance Cantwell's huge advantage in campaign cash. As of Aug. 30, Cantwell reported more than $5 million in the bank, to just $2.8 million on hand for McGavick.

Cantwell has raised more than $16 million since taking office in 2001, while McGavick, a former Safeco Corp. CEO, has raised $7.4 million to date.


Cantwell's campaign declined to comment, but a spokesman for Washington state Democrats blasted McGavick's fundraising spree.

"Washington, D.C., is hopelessly broken and Mike McGavick has the solution: gas up the plane and go see his lobbyist pals back East," said Kelly Steele, spokesman for Washington State Democrats.

Calling McGavick President Bush's "hand-picked candidate," Steele said "McGavick's first move (as the GOP nominee) is to head to D.C. for his final marching orders from Bush and the special-interest lobbyists bankrolling his campaign to rubber stamp their failed agenda."

Asked for a response, Bundy was prepared: "I would say thank you to Kelly Steele and the Democratic party and Sen. Cantwell's campaign for proving our point. They are running a typical Washington, D.C., campaign. It's an attack-and-avoid campaign."

Washington state residents "are sick and tired" of such partisan politics, Bundy said, "and with every word (Democrats) say they prove our point exactly."


"We're active in over 150 campaigns this election cycle," she said, noting that the group's next event is for Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia.

Bundy also said there was nothing special about a trip to Washington to raise money, and said McGavick has made no promises to the mining industry.

Comment: Well, the obvious is blinding clear. But until control of the Senate returns to the States, this will only grow.

Redstate Weblog: Senate Needs Change

Found at the weblogs Redstate and cross posted on Scioio the Metalcon

After hearing about a couple of insanities coming out of the Senate this past week, it is time for the American people to show their ire by doing one of two things: voting for senate term limits or a repeal of the 17th Amendment and making state legislators select the representatives of the states instead of being installed through direct elections, as was originally established in the Constitution.

So many of our Senators have been in office a long, long time, and consistently fail the American people, and the states they represent, on regular basis. They get drunk and rich on their own power and gladhand each other as they further denigrate the voice of the American people (McCain-Feingold). Time for a change. Get term limits in place or repeal the 17th Amendment.

Comment: Obviously from my perspective term limits are not the answer; repealing the 17th amendment is. Having term limits will only further the problem of the oligarchic power growing in the Senate that has created an imbalance in our government. Term limits only perpetuate the problem, that being the movement to mob democracy verse the intended republican form where the state, as a “sovereign,” has equal representation in the Legislative Branch.

While the author of the weblog has the correct intuition, further understanding of this matter is needed. Start with John MacMullin’s article, Repeal the 17th, that appears on the von Mises Institute website, and Todd Zywiki’s law journal article, Beyond the Shell and Husk of History: The History of the Seventeenth Amendment and Its Implications for Current Reform Proposals. Both are excellent primers detailing the issue. As one delves into the issue they will certainly find the very tool used by the populist that was intended to destroy “the systems of federalism and bicameralism which had previously checked expansionist federal activity.”[i]


[i] Todd Zywiki, Beyond the Shell and Husk of History: The History of the Seventeenth Amendment and Its Implications for Current Reform Proposals; Cleveland State Law Review; 1997.

The Oligarchy at Work in RI

Chafee and Cardin triumph; Rep. Wynn in tight race; By Aaron Blake and Jonathan E. Kaplan; The Hill.

Centrist Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) withstood a heated primary challenge on Tuesday from conservative Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, winning 54 percent to 46 percent thanks to record turnout spurred by a national party-led get out the vote effort.

Chafee's win was in part due to the support of the National Republican Senatorial
Committee (NRSC) and the White House despite a track record of bucking his party and President Bush. The more than 63,000 voters who turned out trumped the prior record of 45,000.

Laffey was backed by the conservative Club for Growth and made a name for himself as a brash and energetic campaigner who surprised many by making it a race against Chafee, the son of the late Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) who took his father's seat in 1999.

Chafee now faces Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, who expectedly cruised to victory in the Democratic primary. Whitehouse is a former state attorney general who now looks to benefit from Chafee's bruising primary, in which the senator admitted to apprehension about going negative on Laffey.

The NRSC indicated last week that it wouldn't support Laffey if he won the primary, citing polls showed Laffey 30 points behind Whitehouse in the general election. Chafee has polled neck and neck with the Democrat.

While Senate Republican strategists were breathing a sigh of relief following Chafee's win, House GOP operatives were disappointed that Republican Randy Graf won a contested primary for retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe's (R-Ariz.) seat. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and Kolbe endorsed centrist Steve Huffman, but Graf beat him by 6 percentage points.

The Rhode Island Senate primary captured the most attention this week after the NRSC hammered Laffey with millions of dollars of negative ads. Laffey's loss is a defeat for the Club for Growth, which backed his candidacy and had won a victory last month when it helped defeat incumbent GOP Rep. Joe Schwarz (Mich.).

"Chafee's independent, honest leadership drove historic turnout and clearly shows he's in a great position to win in November," said Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the NRSC.

Not surprisingly, Democrats read the tea leaves differently.

"When Chafee can barely win his own primary, you know he'll have trouble in the general election," said Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Comment: The Rhode Island Republican Senatorial Primary election demonstrates the two issues: the overreaching influence of the Executive Branch into the Legislative Branch and the abuse of big money. The founders were clear about the separation between the branches of government and this is why the States had the right to elect their Senator; not the people, special interest groups, or the President of the United States. Clearly President Bush overreached his Constitution authority by interfering in this election, but unfortunately, this is the “intended” consequence of the 17^th Amendment. I say it was intended because those that succeed in ramming this farce through knew they could influence the mob vote.

The second issue, abuse of big money, should be of additional concern because the money that supported Lincoln Chaffee’s victory was financed by National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). This is the oligarchy protecting its position. Unfortunately without an understanding of the 17^th Amendment this issue slides by without even one media personality grasping the significance.

The Legislative Branch is compromised and until the people of this country realize the corruption, elections like the one in Rhode Island will continue to be dominated by remote influence. Only by repealing the 17^th Amendment will Congress regained the lost power that sits in the pockets of the corrupt.

Say Anything: The Republic Is In Danger!

Found at the weblog Say Anything:

The electoral college is under attack. This is nothing new. Urban areas and populated states (read: blue states) don't like the system that we have used to elect presidents since the Constitution was adopted. They have realized that it would be hard to amend the constitution to fix this, so they have taken to skulduggery! (nice word, huh?)

Unfortunately it is a threat, and a real one, to the basic tenet that we are a republic and not a democracy. Not since the enactment of the 17th amendment have states seen the potential loss of power that this trend portends.

Comment: Democracy is the worst and most tyrannical of all forms of government. However, do not expect any help from your U.S. Senator repelling this attack. They are only too glad to kick the Constitution to the curb.