The travesty of the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court of the US has led to even bigger spending on elections, but it's strange. I am pretty certain that the Republicans in particular hailed Citizens United as the opening of the flood gates that would allow them to win any election, simply by putting enough money into the race. Let's face it - if National Review Online hails the decision as "More Free Speech" and pens a glowing defense of the ruling and rebuts criticisms as "profound misguidedness," you can be fairly certain they were as pleased as could be at the implications of unlimited corporate cash pouring into the electoral process of this country.
Turns out, they were wrong. Democrat Kathy Hochul's decisive victory last night for the NY-26 seat vacated by a married, Republican, Craigslist-trolling paragon of virtue helps show that, in fact, unlimited money is not what decides elections. If it was, then Republican Jane Corwin would have won in this heavily Republican district.
Corwin, whose net worth is estimated at $158 million, had lent her own campaign $2.76 million as of May 17th. Karl Rove's American Crossroads group spent at least $700,000 on television ads, online ads, and phone calling. The NRCC spent at least $265,000 on her behalf. Corwin even got some money from Paul Ryan's Prosperity PAC to the tune of $2,500. Other contributors to Corwin's campaign included the NRA, the National Right to Life Committee, and the US Chamber of Commerce (no surprise there). For individual contributions, as of the beginning of May Corwin had raised over $300,000 but I am unable to find more recent data.
Third party (or Tea Party) candidate Jack Davis, also a multimillionaire, had put $2.65 million of his own money into his campaign as of May 17th as well. Interestingly, Davis refused to accept individual contributions to his campaign, something that he may have thought would appeal to fiscally conservative supporters. It seems that Davis turned out to be a non-issue in this race. His sometimes liberal, sometimes conservative views probably confused most voters, and don't seem to have pulled votes away from any of the other two candidates in particular.
Kathy Hochul had some money on her side as well. She lent her own campaign $500,000, and although total individual contributions have not been reported yet, as of May 13 Hochul had raised over $560,000. The House Majority PAC spent more than $221,000 on TV ads against Corwin. She also had at least $250,000 spent by the DCCC on her behalf, as well as about $100,000 spending on ads by labor groups.
In total, Bill Mahoney of NYPIRG found that outside groups had spent $1,253,427.37 on Corwin compared to $916,594.45 on Hochul (full donations listed at the link). Along with their personal contributions to their campaigns, and their individual donors, all told Republican Jane Corwin far outspent the Democrat Kathy Hochul in this race.
And yet Hochul won, and in a heavily Republican district no less. This may have been a referendum on Ryan's proposed plan to destroy America and Medicare, but it is a relief to see that money can't buy everything - at least not when voters are upset and angry with the socially destructive path that Republicans are trying to set us on.
As a hilarious aside, National Review Online is filled with articles today emphatically insisting that the NY-26 outcome was not, in fact, a referendum on Medicare; it is either a result of Corwin's lack of "free-market" message to voters, or a result of the ignorance of blue collar voters. As Henry Olson writes:
"(B)lue-collar voters react differently to issues than the GOP base does... These voters crave stability and are uncertain of their ability to compete in a globalized economy that values higher education more each year. They are also susceptible to the age-old Democratic argument that the secret Republican agenda is to eviscerate middle-class entitlements to fund tax cuts for the wealthy."Wow - how flattering for all of the conservative, lower and middle class workers of the country. Afraid of change, undereducated, incapable of understanding what's really going on, and now apparently unwilling to let the wealthy Republicans decide what is best for them. How ungrateful and ignorant they are! Well, with that kind of love, they'll be flocking back to the GOP any day now.