High Spending Marks Congressional Elections
In the weeks leading up to congressional midterm elections across the nation, a lot of money is being spent. Candidates and parties have raised large amounts of cash to spend on last-minute television advertisements and campaign events.
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Many congressional races have tightened over the past two weeks. Voters are facing a final onslaught of ads by candidates, party committees, interest groups. And what is the price tag on all of this? Well, NPR's Peter Overby reports that fundraising for 2006 past the billion-dollar mark sometime ago.
PETER OVERBY: Republican incumbents have a cash advantage this year, as they usually do. What's new is that most of the Democratic challengers have raised enough money to compete. The same is true for the out party's national committees.
Michael Malbin directed the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan think tank. He notes that Democrats have been gaining momentum in the polls.
Mr. MICHAEL MALBIN (Director, Campaign Finance Institute): That could change in a month, but candidate money won't be the reason this changes. I don't think party money will be the reason either.
OVERBY: Take Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District in the northeast corner of the state. Eight-year incumbent, Don Sherwood, had no opponent in his last two re-election campaigns. Now, after a sex scandal, he faces a tough challenge from Democrat Chris Carney. Carney started far behind financially. He says he's catching up and hard work helped some.
Mr. CHRIS CARNEY (Democrat, Congressional Candidate, Pennsylvania): That said, the Republican Party can still outspend us. In fact, in September alone, the Republican Party dumped almost three quarters of a million dollars on me.
OVERBY: And the Democratic Party threw almost half a million into the race. This kind of spending is happening all over the country. The national parties adapted the campaign finance reform in 2003, by building up their small donor bases. Internet fundraising played a big part in this. Now, just the two national committees that focus exclusively on House races have about $35 million each, to spend in the home stretch.
Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Mr. CARL FORTI (Spokesman, National Republican Congressional Committee): You can always use more cash. The money never goes far enough, but we have enough to do what we want to do and we think we have enough to hold the House.
OVERBY: Both parties build their strategies around negative ads. That way, the candidates themselves can be more positive. For instance, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee plays the scandal card against the Republican Conrad Burns in Montana.
(Soundbite of a political ad)
Unidentified Man: And Conrad Burns was the number one friend of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates, taking $150,000. No wonder Abramoff said he got whatever he wanted from Burns.
OVERBY: And in the Tennessee Senate race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee accuses the Democrat, Congressman Harold Ford, of hypocrisy.
(Soundbite of a political ad)
Unidentified Woman: So what kind of man parties with Playboy Playmates in lingerie, then films political ads from a church pew, voted to kill the Patriot Act and cut intelligence funding, then talks tough on security?
OVERBY: Non-party players are deep into the campaign too: environmental groups, organized labor, the National Rifle Association, many others - some on TV, some just below the radar.
Bill Miller is national political director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. BILL MILLER (National Political Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce): The chamber has never spent anywhere close to what we're going to and what we have spent in an off-year election. It doesn't have any parallel, by probably three or four-fold.
OVERBY: One thing that's missing this year is a single independent group with national scope and impact, something along the lines of the Swift Boat Veterans group or the liberal groups funded by billionaire George Soros two years ago.
At the Campaign Finance Institute, Michael Malbin says he no longer expects to see such a group emerge.
Mr. MALBIN: The organizations that have been in the field working, ready to be active, are the parties. If you try to buy TV time, it's awfully late, it's all bought up. And if you're looking to do ground more mobilization, it's too late to get started.
OVERBY: It's even likely that many independent groups will simply get drowned out, as the parties take over in the closing weeks.
Joe Monahan writes a political blog in New Mexico. He's been watching GOP Congresswoman Heather Wilson duke it out with challenger Patricia Madrid, the state attorney general. Both candidates in both parties are throwing money into the fight.
Mr. JOE MONAHAN (Political Blogger, New Mexico): I think that the effectiveness of the dollar, the last dollars that they're spending, is very little. I mean, they're only going after nine or ten thousand undecided voters, at this point. When do you hit the in terms of how much you can spend?
OVERBY: And another question, when do voters hit the wall in terms of how much they can stand?
Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
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