Where Do Candidates Get Their Money?

Today the New York Times reported that the "maverick anti-lobbyist" McCain campaign has raised $181,000 from lobbyists. The Obama campaign has received $6,000 from lobbyists and reportedly intends to return the money.

Why is it such a big deal, where candidates get their campaign contributions? Well, there's a couple of things. For starters, there's the idea of whom a candidate, and later, president, might feel indebted to. There's also the fact that, once president, a person might want to be re-elected, and might want to turn to the same donors again in four years. So chances are, if you the president were sitting in the pocket of some big-ticket donors, you're going to want to try to keep them happy so you can fundraise again and get elected to a second term.

The other issue is one of getting things done in Washington. Most presidents who are elected, are elected because money and power were raised from the top -- they have powerful, wealthy friends who are senators and congressmen and lobbyists and CEOs. These rich, powerful friends raise money and lend their support networks to their favored candidate. Let's consider our two candidates running for president. When the president is elected, he now wants to, say, raise automobile fuel efficiency standards (you know, global warming, energy independence, all that nice stuff he talked about during the campaign).

The Washington Insider has to go to the same people who were his financial supporters and ask for their political support passing this thing. Well, maybe his lobbyist and CEO friends will now say, "Sure, John, just water down your bill a little for us, you know, keep our clients and corporate interests happy." His buddies on the Hill will ask him to water down the bill to keep their interests happy. And the President will have no choice. These are the people who got him elected and they hold all his political power. Plus he has to keep his money happy so he can get re-elected. So his bill is meaningless and we continue to pour CO2 into the atmosphere and remain dependent on foreign oil.

Instead, let's say we have a candidate who took no money from lobbyists. Let's say our candidate raised his money from over 2 million [update: 3 million!] citizens who donated $20 or $100 at a time. He wants to raise fuel efficiency standards and is meeting some resistance in congress. He now can send out a letter or e-mail to his grass-roots network of contributors asking for their political support: Please call or write your senator and pressure them to vote for my bill. So our grass-roots fundraising candidate, now President, will actually have more political capital than the Washington Insider and will be able to pass more meaningful legislation.