.@mrsinisterlefty How can we ever know what the presidency is actually worth if the free market isn't allowed to work its magic?
— Billmon (@billmon1) April 22, 2015
Doyle MacManus, in the LA Times:
… The most important players aren’t the candidates; they’re the mega-donors. In American politics, money talks.
That’s always been true, of course. But this year, we’re reaching new lows: The Republican race has devolved into a battle among headstrong billionaires, each with a pet candidate.
David Koch, whose family made its money in coal, has Walker. (For all his protestations of neutrality, Koch sounded pretty smitten.) Norman Braman, who owns 23 car dealerships, has Marco Rubio. Robert Mercer, a New York hedge fund manager, has Ted Cruz. Foster Friess, an investment manager, has Rick Santorum. (Yes, Santorum is still in the running — thanks in large part to the generosity of Friess.)
The biggest mega-donor of them all, Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, is still playing hard to get. All the candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, are courting him.
There’s something grotesque about a process that requires serious politicians to hover anxiously around a few donors who can make or break a campaign at whim….
Further reading: In the NYTimes, “The Next Era of Campaign-Finance Craziness Is Already Underway“:
… On April 6, the day before [Rand] Paul made his formal announcement, National Journal reported that…[Paul’s longtime political adviser Jesse] Benton will be running with several others America’s Liberty PAC, the principal Paul-supporting super PAC — the class of technically independent campaign organization that is free to spend as many millions of dollars as it can raise, without all those nettlesome regulations that limit donations to formal presidential campaigns to $5,400 a person.
Then there is the longtime Jeb Bush adviser Mike Murphy. Murphy guided Bush through the rocky shallows of early-stage presidential politics and helped manage Bush’s successful push to lock down most of the Republican Party’s top donors for the 2016 race, effectively sidelining Mitt Romney and hobbling Chris Christie. Not long ago, it would have been taken as a given that Murphy would join Bush’s formal campaign once it was announced — but people close to the campaign expect he will join Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise, instead. And Gov. Scott Walker’s former campaign manager and chief of staff, Keith Gilkes, announced late last week that he would not be joining Walker’s formal campaign but rather Walker’s super PAC, Unintimidated PAC — this in spite of legal investigations into Walker’s aides’ interactions with outside conservative groups…
Until someone rewrites Circle of Life from the point of view of the vultures & hyenas, this old chestnut will have to do…
RaflW
I’m not sure our democracy can be saved.
And on that cheery note … good night!
Mnemosyne (tablet)
Saw the live action “Cinderella” tonight. It was really friggin’ adorable without being saccharine. The way I explained it to G is that it’s a perfect insomnia movie — interesting enough to keep your attention but without anything too disturbing in it that would prevent you from falling asleep afterwards.
NotMax
And formerly owned the Philadelphia Eagles.
Auto lots can be lucrative but selling an NFL team, now that’s some real scratch.
mai naem mobile
But Anthony Kennedy says flea speech! flea speech! so it’s all okay.
? Martin
It’d be handy if someone on USSC actually understood finance. The difference between a GOP and a Dem president solely on the issue of the estate tax is about $15B to the Koch brothers alone. That is, at a cost of $1B for each election cycle before they die, if they can secure a Republican president, they can easily get a 200% return on investment worst case just on that one tax, just those two guys.
Buying politicians is absurdly cheap relative to what a President can deliver on, even just with a veto pen. You’d be a fucking idiot to not throw a billion dollars at one if you had the money.
Major Major Major Major
Money, indeed.
Quickly-becoming-standard shameless plug: I posted part 2 of both stories today.
A Day Late and a World Short
The Fish
Petorado
“We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”
My word no. How could the Koch brothers “auditioning” presidential candidates possibly construed as having the appearance of corruption?
Suzanne
Anyone see Amy Schumer’s “Football Town Nights”? Oh my God. I laughed SO HARD.
Major Major Major Major
@Petorado: I remember a cartoon with a statue of Blind Justice, and Kennedy saying “hahaha, the *appearance* of corruption, get it??”
Aleta
Too funny
EconWatcher
Luckily for us, the Koch brothers do not seem that smart.
Although they did have the business acument to inherit a boatload of money….
BillinGlendaleCA
@EconWatcher:
Gotta admit, it’s a great business plan.
Tenar Darell
@Suzanne: Tagged it for later. Read a good review on, umm, Think Progress?
Major Major Major Major
@BillinGlendaleCA: no, it’s a business plan that worked. There’s a big difference.
You also have to be alive to write a business plan iirc
BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
Nope, they’re called wills.
balconesfault
David Koch, whose family made its money in coal, has Walker.
Coal? What kind of horrible researchers do they have working for them at the LA Times?
Gene108
At least there is competition amongst Republicans for which billionaires agenda they will push, if elected President, unlike Democrats who are all in the pocket of George Soros and his Hungarian-world agenda.
raven
Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation as Russians Pressed for Control of Uranium Company
Joe and Mika are on it like White on Rice!!!!!
Tommy
@Gene108: I’d think these billionaires might have like a “Bat Phone” they could get on and maybe come up with a unified strategy. That they are all going to spend millions against each other makes me happy but doesn’t make much sense.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I guess it’ll be President Cruz.
Chris T.
The Jeb! campaign is planning to outsource everything to their own Super-PAC.
If Jeb! wins, I think they also plan to outsource the actual job of Presidentin’ to the Super-PAC too…
Tommy
@raven: I am so happy I got rid of cable so I don’t have the knee-jerk desire to turn on MSNBC.
Now with that said I am nothing close to an expert on the Clinton Foundation, I really know little about it. But last I checked it is a charity. Since when is it bad to have a charity.
If I was running a charity and some terrible, bad people wanted to give me money I’d take it and try to do some good with it. If they asked me for something in return I’d tell them to go pound dirt.
raven
@Tommy: So what is your point? You don’t have cable, you don’t like it? I do.
raven
If I was Howard Dean I’d punch both of these fuckers.
Tommy
@raven: I will honestly say I miss it (sports). But not watching MSNBC like I used to do most of the day has lowered my blood pressure. That was all I was saying.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Mika’s been very shrill.
Amir Khalid
@Tommy:
Why would these real-life Auric Goldfinger types want to be in cahoots with anybody? Each of them wants to be The One with POTUS in his pocket.
Cervantes
Doyle McManus, unsurprised:
I liked his calling for debates among donors instead of candidates.
raven
@Tommy: I like to know what’s up.
Tommy
@raven: As do I. Thinking I’d not be on a site like this and not care what is happening in the world around me. My initial comment was really just about Morning Joe and Mika and not a dig at you.
Cervantes
@raven:
Other than Morning Joe, how do you keep tabs on “what’s up”?
Bobby B
What’s up is Joe’s hair.
Raven
@Tommy: We’re cool.
Raven
@Cervantes: From you!
Cervantes
@Raven:
Boy, are you in trouble!
Woodrowfan
The “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” scene at the end now reminds me of Tea Party rallies…
gvg
Make or Break the campaign? I think that is overstated. I don’t like the money pouring in and with bad luck it could cause some bad laws. Indifference of voters is the danger.
However the money spent hasn’t usually had sucessful results, especially for elections lots of people care about.
all politicians need a certain amount of money but not endless amounts. Then they need votes, and they get better vote totals with a good group of organizers.
These rich guys think more money=elections but money doesn’t always equal lots of people agree. Obama raised a ton on money from small donors in big numbers and that was significant because it implied and did mean a lot of voters agreed with him. Romney and some others have raised big sums but from only a few donors and that is significant because if means there aren’t that many votes for their position. The rich guys tend to have too big an ego too. They don’t understand other peoples views and think they are more important than they really are.
If Jeb or other spend all their time chasing the big donors….when are they going to convince lots of voters? Sure, whoever the GOP outs up has a certain floor, but that isn’t enough. $ is not a proxy for a voter poll. The rich funded pols have tended to do worse than an ordinary politician. I think it started with Perot, at least the current trend.
Its also worth looking at what these superpacs spend money on. If the money goes to party apparatus building, volunteer lists, get out the vote lists, those are important. Adds? Sometimes important but saturation is real. so is big contracts to friends and relatives that don’t change results.
D58826
@NotMax: Beat me to it. but since he was threatening to move the team to Phoenix, he was lucky to get out of town without being tarred and feathered.
jayjaybear
@Woodrowfan: This is an interesting point. The German aristocracy (“the Establishment”) thought they could use the Nazis as stalking horses to enact their own agenda. I imagine that will work just as well for our own modern American Establishment and the Tea Party…