From today’s Virginian-Pilot:
The ability of incumbents to raise – and spend – money makes it easier for them to stay in office, said Deborah Goldberg, an attorney and ethics expert who follows campaign-finance reform issues for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
“It’s easy for an incumbent to swamp competition,” she said. “The system is set up to make this sort of thing happen.”
You can say that again. Of course, guess who set up the system? Why, that would be the incumbents!
One would expect that the top spenders in the Southside Hampton Roads races would be candidates in contested races. Leading the pack for Senate is Ken Stolle, who has spent over $800,000 in this election cycle, which began for Senators 1/1/2004. The top spender on the House side is Portsmouth Delegate Johnny Joannou. Yes, he is currently unopposed but Joannou’s spending came about as the result of a contested primary in June. Taking him out of the mix, the top spender is Terrie Suit, who has spent nearly $212,000 since 1/1/2006. Both Stolle and Suit are running virtually unopposed. (I say “virtually” because there is a write-in campaign going on in both of these races.)
This is why it costs so much to run for office. And the amount of money necessary will only increase, further limiting the pool of candidates.
We get the democracy we can afford, folks.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
By the way, you totally overestimate how much money most pundits, consultants and political scientists make. But bonus points for “rented strangers,” that’s the funniest description I’ve heard of consultants in a long time! 🙂
The public financing system I’m advocating is voluntary, as is most any other well thought out public financing system. You’re never forced into anything. You don’t like it, you don’t take it. It’s a choice many of our present candidates have made.
And what has it accomplished?
The candidates could speak all they wanted to, within the bounds of a very short campaign season. The short season would limit the influence of those robo calls as well as other outside funded ads. This is a case where we really can have our cake and eat it, too. We can have reasonable reforms that eliminate corporate money and donors outside of the district. Your call blocker should take care of those robo calls, BTW, so that fad should soon be ending, especially if we add political calls to the no call list.
I could like the election day lottery idea even more if we could find a way to attract better informed voters.
As for Drake, and other folks who are brave enough to run for office, I wish everyone would stop the character assassinations and just debate the merits of the issues. John Miller is a model candidate in this regard and so far, Hank Giffin has run a fairly gentlemanly campaign, too. I would be happy if more citizens these two good men
would be elected to our legislature. The main problem with Hank is that he has the Bill Howell brain implant and refuses to pledge to repeal the RTAs and abuser fees. Too bad. That stupid position alone may negate his civilized campaign and cost him the election. I am sure the readers of this blog won’t shed a tear for Hammerin’ Hank.
An election lottery will not attract more informed voters. If they have to be bribed to vote, I would rather they didn’t.
Immigrants have to pass a test to be allowed to vote, why shouldn’t the natives?
Perhaps, the candidates should have a cap on the total amount allowed in donations and once that cap is reached any funds received would have to be returned. It would be really interesting to see how many donors would be desperate to get their donations in first. I think $100,000 would be reasonable to send out flyers and a few billboards. Just think of the amount of time that wouldn’t be wasted trying to get campaign contributions and the time that could actually be spent doing what the public elects them for.
I know, why don’t we just make everyone take a citizenship test when they reach the age of majority? The ones who pass can vote, and we can turn the rest of them into Citizens, Second Class!
JFC. The reason we’ve got such a pathetic level of political discourse is that we have to spend all of our time covering the basics.
Fortunately, BM, most of the intellectual proletariat don’t vote. They are relegating themselves to “Second Class.”
I really don’t understand why you would want ignorant people to vote.
Because even you deserve a voice in how this country is run.
If someone is unwilling to learn about history, candidates, and issues, why does he deserve a voice in how the country is run?