Money is king in (Florida) politics

Al’s Loupe

Money is king in (Florida) politics

By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com

In Florida, when the 2010 political season is over and done with, we may look back and refer to this election season as the one where we finally turned the corner and made money the most important ingredient of any political campaign. In other words, it wasn’t so much about the candidate or what he or she stood for, but the fact that the candidate had a ton of money to spend on the campaign trail. At times, as we’ve seen in the U.S. Senate and Florida governor’s races, the candidate using resources from his own bank account, tapping personal wealth.

The governor’s race is a case in point. Bill McCollum, for example, has had a tough time getting any sort of traction against multi-millionaire Rick Scott in the republican primary. McCollum, who is well known in Florida having served as attorney general and before that as a member of Congress, is getting the blessing and support of some of the biggest names in state republican circles, and still, polls show him trailing Scott, who has never dipped his toes in politics until he decided to challenge McCollum. And in spite of names like Jeb Bush and the Diaz-Balart brothers lending support, plus Scott’s less than stellar reputation and a Medicare fraud scandal that hangs over him, the millions he has spent on this election had him leading McCollum by 10 points last week based on a St. Pete Times/Miami Herald poll.

Another example is the democratic U.S. Senate primary where billionaire Jeff Greene is giving Miami Congressman Kendrick Meek an unexpected headache. Greene, a Palm Beach real estate mogul, has already spent 11 million of his own dollars as compared to $2 million for Meek. And for Greene, there’s more where that came from, which may spell disaster for Meek, who has never lost an election.

A sign of things to come?

Let us not forget that earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. In other words, that the government has no business regulating political speech. Money, by the way, said the Supremes, equals political speech.

Afterwards, The New York Times reported that “The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted.”

As Floridians are already witnessing, and although not in the same light as the Supreme Court ruling, which simply opened a new door allowing even greater quantities of money to be used in electoral campaigns, money has already jumped even higher on the list of priorities if one is considering a run for any political position.

The question to ask is, what comes next? It is something that needs pondering. And as voters, are we losing our hold on a democracy that seems headed to a less participatory system controlled by the power of money?

In Miami-Dade, money is king

Speaking of money in politics, I ran through some campaign contribution reports here locally. Let me give you a heads-up, then ask: why are some of these folks raising so much dough while running unopposed?

For example, County Commissioner Rebecca Sosa has already won her reelection. She had no opponent. Still, she had amassed more than $104,000 in campaign contributions. Marta Perez, a member of the school board, also unopposed and therefore already a winner, had put together $123,000 — of those, $100,000 was her own money.

County Commissioner Jose ‘Pepe’ Diaz had a war chest of $268,000. His opponent had raised less than $1,000 and nobody’s ever heard or seen the other person.

Surely there are questions to ask: For starters, where does that money go if you have no one to run against?

But more importantly, when it comes to the money, it demonstrates that it plays a major role in getting elected – and then staying in power. Why do you think a School Board Member like Marta Perez lends herself $100,000 right off the bat when seeking reelection? The answer’s a simple one. Anyone who had considered running against her will be immediately disheartened to know he or she kicks off a campaign $100,000 behind in the race for the hearts and minds of voters in the district.

Chances of winning, slim to none…