Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Financing a Campaign

Wednesday August 20, 2003

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NOTE: Click here for an update to this column - Fundraising on the Internet which is now available.

A couple of weeks ago I wasted a small portion of your morning by telling you about how an appearance on a cable chat show typically works. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at various aspects of a typical political campaign.

Today we'll peek at financing a campaign.

We will, in this once-in-a-while series, use a Congressional race as our model. A Presidential campaign has as much in common with any other American political campaign as a Boeing 777 has with a kite: They both do their jobs in the air, but that's about all.

The average campaign for Congress in a district with an open seat (that is, no incumbent on the ballot) cost about $1 million per candidate in 2002.

In my youth I was a candidate for City Council in Marietta, Ohio 45750. I spent, I think, $15.63 including tax. And, as Marietta City did not provide matching funds, I had to raise EVERY SINGLE CENT by myself.

All candidates for Federal office - U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate - fall under the new campaign finance rules. Those rules forbid any contribution from an individual of more than $2,000 per campaign cycle. (Individual candidates were never allowed to collect soft money for their campaigns. The Party Committees could, but can no longer.)

A campaign cycle is any period in which the candidate's name appears on the ballot. Therefore, a candidate running in a primary for Congress can hit you for two grand. But if he or she wins the primary, then they can come back at you for another deuce because the general election is a different cycle.

The limit is per individual. Assuming you have a joint checking account, or your spouse has independent funds, he or she can give the same amounts.

The overwhelming percentage of donations to Congressional campaigns is not more than 1 - 1.5 percent of those limits: $20 - $30.

The finance director (a paid staffer) will often report to a finance chairman which is almost always a non-paying post.

The finance chairman - Republican or Democrat - is typically chosen for his or her Rolodex. He is a person of means who knows other people of means. He will form a Finance Committee of more people of means who will call upon still other people of means to raise the necessary funds.

With all of that, it is still the candidate who will bear the burden of raising the bulk of the money.

A Congressional campaign will try to raise money in several ways, among the most common are:

Direct mail: (Please contribute $100, $50, or even $25 to help Rich Galen become your next Congressman).
Telemarketing: (Hello. I'm calling on behalf of the Rich Galen for Congress campaign �)
Direct solicitation: (Harry? Hi, this is Rich Galen � Galen? � Well, Harry, we were in third grade together. Yes, yes good old Mrs. Moore. G-A-L-E-N. Say, Harry, I'm running for Congress and I could sure use your help �)
Events: (Join our next Congressman, Rich Galen as he honors the Deputy Associate Under Junior Assistant Secretary for Solid Waste at a gala dinner. Tickets are $150 per person �)

Direct mail is further divided into two parts. A "house file" mailing goes to people who have already donated. A "prospect" mailing goes to people who have been targeted in one way or another as being ripe, so to speak, for the picking but have not previously donated.

House File mailings are, of course, much more productive than prospecting. The goal of prospect mailings is to have it pay its own way, and provide new donors to the house file, which is mailed on a regular basis. That's why you get so many mailings from the national committees.

Raising money is the least favorite aspect of the campaign for almost every candidate partially because campaigns are very entrepreneurial endeavors: If people like what a candidate is saying, and the way he or she is saying it, they will provide the funds to continue. If not, they won't.

Candidates, therefore, know how their campaign is going without the need for any polls.

Next week: The press secretary.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to a web page showing who spent what in the Congressional elections of 2002; a brief discussion of my political career; a nice Mullfoto and a good Catchy Caption of the Day.

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