No end to the money train in politics ... unfortunately
Money is flooding the current election cycle like never before. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto/NoDerog
The money trail is as old a story as there is in politics. But it never ends. Unfortunately.
Money is flooding the current election cycle like never before. Nearly $9.7 billion will be spent nationally on political advertising during the 2022 cycle, according to the advertising intelligence firm AdImpact.
It’s a tough number to grasp. Tens and hundreds of billions have long displaced millions as the currency of legislation, corporate profits, professional team worth, and fat-cat wealth. But here’s a more relevant perspective: The 2016 presidential election, at one time the most expensive campaign, saw $6.5 billion in total spending, including nine of the 10 most expensive Senate races ever. And that number is getting smashed in this off-year election that centers on Congress.
That $9.7 billion more than doubles the previous midterm record, set in 2018. And AdImpact says 2022 spending is even outpacing the most expensive election cycle to date, the 2020 presidential cycle, by nearly $700 million.
Just to refresh, we all thought 2020 was off the charts.
What’s the money bought us?
Not better candidates. Not deeper thinkers. Not more honest outreach. Not a more meaningful exchange of ideas for voters to consider.
What it has bought us is more expensive elections. And more slavish devotion to chasing contributions. And more potential conflicts of interest for winners beholden to donors. And more fact-free messaging that makes it harder for voters to discern actual truth. And wealthier candidates. A candidate who can self-fund to any degree is, quite literally, golden.
In the 1960s, Jesse Unruh, a political force in California for 40 years and then the state’s Assembly speaker, uttered the immortal coinage, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”
The current gold rush can be explained, if not justified.
As our politics become more fevered and our divisions more stark, with control of Congress seeming to be perennially at stake, each election becomes even more of an existential quest. How many times have we voted in “the most important election in our lifetime?”
The consequences are seen when Mitch McConnell practices the politics of raw power to engineer the makeup of the Supreme Court, and Democrats use procedural loopholes to muscle big legislation through a 50-50 Senate. In this zero-sum game, “we” must have power and “they” must not. Ka-ching.
Plus, the importance of state and local races has become increasingly obvious. And more politically active billionaires are seeking influence.
Now we have the hypocrisy of candidates desperately digging for dough, then criticizing opponents who have it, as is happening to contenders as disparate as Pennsylvania Republican senatorial candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and New York City Democratic congressional candidate Dan Goldman.
Where does it end?
It’s hard to see, just as it is hard to see with so much of our political scene. We keep sinking but it’s not clear where the bottom is. What is clear is that the spigots are wide open.
The Republican Senate Leadership Fund announced a $28 million ad reservation just for the Senate race in Ohio, a seat it must keep to regain control, on top of $150 million for seven other states. Its Democratic counterpart has booked more than $100 million in airtime in six states. In the House, the Democratic House Majority PAC has reserved more than $120 million in airtime in 50 media markets, while the Republican Congressional Leadership Fund has booked more than $125 million in 48 markets. That’s four congressional funds, and more than $520 million.
I suppose we should be thankful that gerrymandering has left us with fewer competitive races than ever, which must be keeping costs down.
Imagine how expensive it would be if we had a vibrant democracy.
n COLUMNIST MICHAEL DOBIE’S opinions are his own.
Michael Dobie is a retired member of the Newsday editorial board.
