Thursday, 10 July 2008
McConnell vs Lunsford: Raising Money
McConnell has raised an unbelievable $3 million dollars in the last three months bringing his total amount raised to just over $15 million for the election. He has $9 million cash on hand for the final four months of the campaign. While the money will assure that he gets his message out in the fall, it will open him up to baseless attacks about being beholden to special interests.
Allison Haley, press secretary for Lunsford's campaign, said in a statement, "It must be easy to rake in special interest cash when you've been doing their bidding for 24 years in the Senate.
While this attack sounds good, it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. I have always felt this argument was a bit of a canard. McConnell has always been a defender of second amendment rights. The NRA is a "special interest" group. If members of the NRA were to give him money is it to buy his vote or to ensure that someone is elected who shares a similar ideology? Most organizations give money because they want to elect people who sympathize with them on the issues of the day.
I am not naive enough to believe that there aren't people who give money to try to buy influence. But I imagine it is a small percentage of the $15 million dollars he has raised.
The ironic thing is that much of this supposed "special interest" money is going to be used to battle all of the national liberal special interests groups who are planning on dumping millions of dollars in advertising into Kentucky in an attempt to unseat McConnell.
While McConnell has been raising record amounts of money, Lunsford has begun dumping his personal wealth into his campaign. He wrote his campaign a million dollar check just days after the Supreme Court shot down the millionaires amendment of the McCain-Feingold legislation.
What does this say about each candidate? To begin with, fund raising is really a test of organization skill. To be able to raise the kind of campaign money that McConnell has been able to raise, he must have one heck of a well oiled machine in place. You have to have a tremendous team in place to raise that type of cash. Lunsford on the other hand has begun pumping money into his campaign. How good is his organization if he is struggling to raise money and is already forced to put in his own money?
The other aspect of raising money is the investment people are making in your success. If I give $20 to a candidate, I am probably going to go out of my way to promote the candidate to friends and family. Why? Because I am vested in the candidate's success. By raising $15 million dollars, McConnell has a lot of advocates around the state. Lunsford on the other hand is trying to buy the election with his personal fortune. In doing so his most loyal soldiers are the mercenaries he brings in to run the race.
This is all nice, but how does it effect the results in November? It plays two roles in deciding the election. First off, the money pays for the advertising each candidate needs to deliver his message to the public. Secondly and just as importantly, the organizational skills and loyalty created by raising money lends itself to superior GOTV efforts. Which of these two teams do you think will be the most effective getting out the vote in November?
