How Political Fundraising Has Given Us a Congress of Telemarketers
A Congress of Telemarketers
On the eve of the U.Due south. Senate debate, former upstart candidate John Fetterman says dialing for dollars is killing republic
Oct. 17, 2016
During the Democratic National Convention, Braddock, PA Mayor John Fetterman took part in a far-ranging Denizen discussion about innovation in local government. Only it was his comments on the perversity that passes for how we fund our political campaigns that has stayed with me ever since.
Fetterman, you'll recall from his surprising showing during the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, is an atypical politician. In fact, he abhors being referred to by the term. "I consider myself a social worker who holds a public office," he says. Nor does he—6'10", tattooed, shaved head, goateed—look similar the prototypical chief executive. Merely he has a Master's in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and he's spent the terminal 11 years fighting to bring his distressed city back from the economical abyss. He is, in short, what the electorate says it wants in its leaders: authentic, smart, committed. To wit: Those tattoos? They marking the dates of every murder victim in his city.
Fetterman's primary entrada garnered 20 percent of the vote, an impressive showing for someone who just raised roughly $600,000. I recently defenseless up with him as he was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, en road to brand a stump pitch on behalf of nominee Katie McGinty. We began past talking about the overlooked epidemic of this ballot season: Runaway political spending, and its anti-democratic ramifications. The $6.3 billion spent on the presidential and congressional races four years ago will be surpassed past over $one billion this cycle, driven by shadowy mega-donors . Fetterman says his upstart entrada opened his eyes to but how broken our campaign finance organisation is.
LP: As a candidate, how does fundraising make y'all experience?
Fetterman : Soulless. The tyranny of big dollar fundraising has taken us away from the principal of one man, i vote. Information technology gets us away from equality. If yous tin requite me $25,000, yous're more than of import than someone who can give me $25. It shouldn't be that manner.
LP: It's interesting that even you lot, someone who ran a grassroots campaign, felt soiled by the transactional nature of the system.
Fetterman : Because it really is about a arrangement. I want to be clear: I hate the game, not the players. It'southward a bad system. You're correct, I raised $600,000 in mostly pocket-size dollar donations, much of it online. We showed, and certainly the Bernie Sanders entrada showed, that y'all tin can fund campaigns online with small dollar donations. The Internet can gratis us from that perverse Citizens United ruling that equates money with speech, which has led us to this point where but a handful of wealthy families are underwriting our politics. That's a dangerous proposition.
"I fearfulness it'southward merely going to get worse and worse. We demand more than people in the organisation to publicly acknowledge what they all know. We need them to say, 'I know this is wrong.' I chafed at it consistently. And, I take to tell you, it feels actually expert to get this off my chest."
LP: All the same, fifty-fifty running a grassroots campaign, you still had to do "phone call time," where you lot simply get on the phone and dial for dollars?
Fetterman : Oh, God, yes. I really struggled with it. It's all about volume, volume, volume. We hired political fundraising contractors who would generate lists of people to call and, four or five days a week, I'd spend three to four hours on the phone, trying to dissever consummate strangers from their money. It feels really transactional. I only kept thinking to myself, "This isn't why I got into politics. There'southward got to be a amend fashion." At events, I even developed a addiction of asking crowds, "Who here likes to ask strangers for money? Even better, who likes to be asked for money? Well, welcome to my world." You start to feel like a telemarketer, merely yous're selling yourself. Information technology'south not dignified. Think of it. I'm calling you, and I don't know if you just got laid off or if your kid is sick. And I'g doing a sales pitch. I challenge anyone in that situation not to feel kind of gross.
LP: So what'due south the respond?
Fetterman : The only thing I can recollect of is online. I'd much rather have 100 $25 donations than one $2,500 contribution. That's more the essence of commonwealth. I'm a large laic in crowdfunding—why not crowd fund campaigns? We've been buying books and clothes online for years. We should exist contributing online, too. When things aren't working the way they should, it's usually most the money. Why are we even so arguing well-nigh climate science? Because a whole industry propped up by the fossil fuel industry has invested tens of millions of dollars into preserving the status quo. Gun control? Despite 90 percent of Americans like-minded with common sense regulations, lobbyists work a cleaved system. Well, our politics are broken, too. And that's also about the money.
LP: The predominant reason campaigns are then expensive is the cost of TV advertising—
Fetterman : Which is insane. Remember of all those ads, all those tens of millions of dollars spent on seeing who can brand the other person seem more corrupt, more seedy. Coming from a community as poor as mine, where the average household income is nether $20,000, it's perverse. Do you know what $10 million could do in my community? And now nosotros have all these dark coin expenditures, yous know, the ads that say at the end, 'Paid for past Friends of Friends of American Friends," or whatever. Well, no 1 is going to track that downwards and look that upwards, find out who's funding our elections and why. Anyone who has had a front end row seat to this process, as I have, knows that the system is broken.
"The tyranny of big dollar fundraising has taken united states of america abroad from the principal of ane man, one vote. Information technology gets united states away from equality. If you tin can give me $25,000, yous're more of import than someone who can requite me $25. Information technology shouldn't be that way."
LP: Here'southward a pretty elemental question. Did you like being a candidate for public role?
Fetterman : I honey everything well-nigh it, other than the fundraising. I love going to events, meeting voters, debating ideas, helping to solve problems in real people'due south lives. There was one moment on the Senate campaign where this all came together for me. We hired a fundraising consultant from Washington, D.C. And we'd only had a really peachy event with about 100 people and I was feeling pretty good. I said something to her like, "Everything is going pretty well, except the fundraising." And her response pretty much ripped the eye out of my breast. She said: "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" I realized she was correct, sadly.
LP: Last April hour aired a report about Republican Congressman David Jolly, who says that, the day later on he was elected, his party'south leadership told him his job was to enhance $xviii,000 a day on the phone in these secretive call banks. He proposed a pecker that would prohibit members of Congress from asking for money—period. Their staffers even so could, but at least our elected representatives could spend their time legislating. Of course, he only got six co-sponsors, the bill went nowhere, his political party felt betrayed, and at present they're not helping in his reelection bid. He may lose side by side month. It'southward kind of a depressing cautionary tale.
Fetterman : I fearfulness information technology'southward only going to get worse and worse. Nosotros demand more people in the system to publicly acknowledge what they all know. We need them to say, "I know this is wrong." I chafed at it consistently. And, I have to tell you, it feels really good to get this off my chest.
LP: Thank you lot, Mayor. Hither's hoping others in the system come up out to at least acknowledge, as y'all have, that nosotros have a problem.
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/john-fetterman-congress-of-telemarketers/
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