Today, while writing my sermon, grabbing lunch and dinner, and watching a little college football, we've had no less than six automated telephone calls from the Republicans and the Bush campaign. Yesterday, there were several automated calls from the Republicans and a live call.
This morning's Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the Bush and Kerry campaigns have spent about $20-million on TV advertising in the local market alone.
On Monday through Saturday for weeks now, our mailbox has been full of campaign material. On Thursday, we received two pieces from the Bush campaign, one from the Kerry campaign, and a mailer with sample ballots from the Republican Party, approximately the fourth one we've received this fall.
When one considers the amounts of money spent by both parties and all candidates, it's appalling. I don't know anybody who likes it. Earlier this year, I spoke with a prominent local politician over breakfast, a good and principled person. "When I think of all the hungry people who could be fed with the money we raise for our campaigns, it makes me sick," he told me. "But that's just the way it is."
And so it is. When I ran for the Ohio House of Representatives earlier this year, I was one of five candidates vying for the nomination. Our finishes on election night corresponded exactly with how much money we spent in our campaigns. I estimate that the three who finished ahead of me spent (or had spent on their behalf by various organizations, including other campaigns and the party central committee) approximately $120,000.00. My campaign, which finished fourth with 12.9% of the vote, took in and spent about $2800.00. The fifth-place candidate spent a fraction even of that amount.
The point is that while the candidate who won our primary is qualified, our finishes on primary election night bore no relationship to any consideration of qualifications. It came down to how much advertising, mailers, signage, and telephone calls the campaigns were able to afford.
Of course, the expenditures in a Battleground State like Ohio during a hotly contested Presidential election dwarf anything spent in a lowly race for the State House of Representatves. And people wonder: What exactly motivates all those people who give to candidate campaign committees, party organizations, 527s, and others involved in the campaign fray?
Certainly, some are motivated by commitments to causes or the public good.
But others are interested in access. In the political arena, money clearly talks. It's not fair, but it's reality, of course. A person who gives $1000.00 to their county commissioner's campaign is more likely to get his calls answered than is a citizen of whom the commissioner has never heard, who has a concern.
And what really bugs me is that all that money results in these pesky recorded telephone calls during the campaign season.
Earlier today, my wife and I were talking with my future son-in-law. He has recently moved here to Ohio from his native Virginia. Virginia isn't "in play" in the presidential race. He informed us that his parents have said they haven't seen a single presidential campaign ad in Richmond. That sounded kind of nice to me.
Fortunately, there are now just three days until the election. I can't wait for it to be done.
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