Last week, the Brennan Center for Justice website published a post by Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Netflix for Democracy. Change frightens politicians and the kind of profound change Torres-Spelliscy wrote about has the political establishments of both parties petrified. It would scramble the power dynamic in Washington. Imagine if leaders were chose because of the quality of their ideas rather than because their willingness to dance around the edges of corruption. Clicking the thermometer below will take you to the Blue America ActBlue page for the tiny handful of current members of Congress we have already endorsed. Please consider a monthly contribution to any who you also feel are worth keeping in Congress for 2020.
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) once put it bluntly: Campaign fundraising has become an incredible “time suck” for lawmakers. It’s a bipartisan problem. Both political parties insist that freshmen members do as much “call time”-- dialing through lists of potential donors begging for campaign cash-- as some telemarketers on top of their legislating duties.Now, it looks like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has said no to this bootlicking dollar-grubbing culture...For most members, fundraising is becoming an ever-steeper hill to climb. Incumbents in the House and Senate raised $486 million in 2000. By 2016 that number had nearly doubled to $909 million-- far outpacing inflation. Members don’t have to report how much time they spend on fundraising, but leaks to the press have indicated that the parties expect new members to budget four hours a day of call time, plus an hour a day for fundraisers, which can be anything from a breakfast to a cocktail hour to a pass-the-hat potluck to a $1,000-a-plate gala dinner.“Both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars,” Rick Nolan, a Minnesota Democrat who retired from Congress this year, said recently, adding: “The simple fact is, our entire legislative schedule is set around fundraising.”In 2013-- not an election year, keep in mind-- the reporter Ryan Lizza happened to overhear a freshman Democratic member of Congress doing call time in a public space for two and half hours straight and live-tweeted what he heard. “I now understand the case for public financing of congressional elections,” Lizza wrote at the end.Every hour spent dialing for dollars is one that can’t be spent crafting policy or hearing from constituents.How is AOC able to say no this pervasive culture of nonstop fundraising? For one thing, with the press following her every move, she can get her political messages out for free. But more important, she can rely on a loyal base of small donors. Coming into the 116th Congress, Ocasio-Cortez had the highest percentage of small donors ($200 or less) of any member of Congress, at 62 percent... Instead of sitting in a cubicle dialing for dollars from a list of big donors, Ocasio-Cortez, like some other grassroots-funded lawmakers, asks her supporters for a small donation monthly, which she compares to a Netflix subscription. "One of the most important things people can do to get big money out of politics," she tweeted, "is small recurring monthly donations. (You can see the monthly button on this link) It’s like Netflix, but for unbought members of Congress. It’s why I can act independently."This approach fits a youth culture where younger voters use their smart phones for everything but conversations. Cold-calling a millennial for money is likely to be a waste of time.Of course, not every member can build that network of small donors right away. That’s why we sorely need reforms like public financing-- part of the sweeping package of democracy measures that made up Democrats’ first bill of 2019-- which can give ordinary Americans a much louder voice in campaigns right away.But let’s also hope more members copy AOC’s approach. Three dollars a month for a clean member of Congress? It’s less than most of us drop on a single cup of coffee at Starbucks. Netflix, but for democracy.
Corrupt status quo Democrats-- say, for example, Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jim Clyburn-- aggregate toilet money from the worst sectors and buy influence, support and power inside the House Democratic caucus by spreading it around to other members who are reluctant to be seen taking money from pay day lenders, private prisons, Wall Street banksters and other villains. But by taking the money from crooked operators like Hoyer, Wasserman Schultz and Clyburn or corrupted PACs like the New Dems', Blue Dogs, Congressional Hispanic Caucus' or the Congressional Black Caucus', they can maintain plausible deniability without giving up the opportunities to stock up on the toilet money. Let's take the banksters-- or more precisely, the Financial, Insurance, Real Estate sector. Since 1990 this most corrupt of sectors has doled out $1.9 Billion to congressional incumbents, almost another billion more to non-incumbent candidates. They gave plenty to both parties, although around $300 million more to corrupt Republicans than to corrupt Democrats (as though it were part of the Democrats' lesser of two evils strategy).Let's look at the dozen members currently serving in the House (not senators and not members who have retired like corrupt slim balls Paul Ryan, Joe Crowley and John Boehner) and see which ones took the most money from the Financial Sector. As you would probably guess, the single most corrupt person in Congress is Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the shame of Bakersfield. Can you guess who the second most corrupt is?
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $8,076,292• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- $6,848,364• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)- $6,373,157• Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)- $6,344,203• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $5,619,577• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $5,604,442• Richard Neal (D-MA)- $5,524,010• Nita Lowey (D-NY)- $5,261,403• Kevin Brady (R-TX)- $4,205,485• Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)- $4,119,973• Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)- $4,063,040• John Larson (D-CT)- $3,970,959
Clyburn's haul has been $2,939,316 and Wasserman Schultz has gobbled up nearly as much-- $2,843,300. But now let's look at two especially ugly pieces of the pie, two that respectable members would never accept money from: pay day lenders and for-profit prisons. These are the 10 current members of the House who have taken the most from payday lenders, and have protected their interests in return:
• Alcee Hastings (D-FL)- $182,950• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $169,225• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $139,599• Blake Luetkemeyer (R-MO)- $135,100• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)- $132,000• Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)- $130,050• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $105,300• David Scott (Blue Dog-GA)- $95,130• Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)- $90,200• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- $82,900
Wasserman Scultz has taken $64,100 from the payday lenders. The sector is too toxic for Hoyer and Clyburn, each of whom has largely avoided it. Now let's do the same exercise for the 10 current members of the House who have taken the most from for-profit prisons and helped make the companies fabulously wealthy:
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- $110,240• Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL)- $86,450• Hal Rogers (R-KY)- $77,400• John Carter (R-TX)- $71,600• Vern Buchanan (R-FL)- $44,300• Robert Aderholt (R-AL)- $27,100Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $25,200• Bennie Thompson (D-MS)- $23,650• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)- $20,500• Tom Graves (R-GA)- $16,500
Although Wasserman Schultz was a big private prison advocate and accepted $12,400 from them, Hoyer and Clyburn were smart enough to stay away from this particular sewer. I'm going to give you one more list-- the freshmen who have started taking the big bucks from the banksters. If you helped them get elected last year... now you know what their promises were worth. These are the Democratic freshmen who have already taken over half a million dollars:
• Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)- $1,461,371• Elissa Slotkin New Dem-MI)- $1,121,380• Antonio Delgado (D-NY)- $1,083,890Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)- $1,038,528• Josh Harder (New Dem-CA)- $1,002,006• Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)- $958,085• Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)- $943,010• Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)- $892,148• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- $866,186• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- $801,969• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)- $800,142• Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)- $781,377• Katie Hill (New Dem-CA)- $780,946• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- $777,317• Mike Levin (D-CA)- $749,053• Andy Kim (D-MI)- $743,272• Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)- $715,247• Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)- $709,329• Conor Lamb (D-PA)- $702,991• Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)- $697,360• Katie Porter (D-CA)- $687,534• Steven Horsford (D-NV)- $631,516• Chrissy Houlahan New Dem-PA)- $631,180• Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)- $625,938• Donna Shalala (D-FL)- $612,552• Ed Case (D-HI)- $554,917• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)- $543,793• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)- $501,830
I bet the worst freshmen are all going to be coming from this list, like Mikie Sherrill, Abigail Spanberger, Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow, Elaine Luria... We'll keep track.One down-- plenty to go!
