Dayton Politics » Husted’s money politics [1]
The first 5 times I ran for office, I tried to do it without accepting campaign contributions- and limited it to $1000- which seemed reasonable for a part time job- that paid $30K a year. I was an idiot.
The last time I ran- back in 1997- I accepted campaign money- even had yard signs (note to self- never put anything that would date your sign on a sign- like “please vote Nov. 2nd” so you can use them again).
The results were scary. I raised $6000 without an organization, or a party. Bootsie Neal raised $10,000, Dean Lovelace raised $12,000. It was a three way race for 2 seats- me against two incumbents. The results came in- I had 6000 votes, Bootsie had 10,000 votes, and Dean had 12,000. That was the wake up call that American politics isn’t about the power of ideas- but the power of money.
Read the link above to “Dayton Politics”- and then the link to the Columbus Dispatch [2]. For a candidate to be donating 2.1 million in 3 years- is a terrifying prospect.
Considering Ohio State Representatives only make about $55K a year- you know it’s not his money he’s playing with. Should we still call the “representatives”- or should we just call them what they’ve become- puppets for sale?
What do you think?
Besides not dating your sign you also need to keep the same election comittee name. Other perpetual candidates have gone so far as to not name the office they are running for on the sign so they can run for something different next time. There are other creative ways to minimize election costs, maybe it would be fun to try and compile a list.