CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – There was a quaint time, many years ago, that almost anyone could run for political office.
Regular, work-a-day citizens of modest means could run for Congress, or for Mayor, or city council, or for the state legislature. You didn’t have to be rich. Your candidacy would rise and fall on your ideas and your effort; were you willing to knock on doors and campaign hard?
That’s changed now. Seats that used to turn on lawn signs now require a big advertising budget. Consider the race for the 85th state assembly seat. It’s the race that pitted Pat Snyder against John Kroll. Kroll won.
The price tag for that assembly race: $3-million. Now granted, balance of power in the legislature was at stake. There were many special interest groups that paid for the radio commercials and the internet messages. But if you thought that humble old you or me, not independently wealthy, could run a competitive campaign – abandon all hope here. Unless you have a political action group sugar daddy, your message will be drowned out. If one candidate has outside backing and another doesn’t… fuhgeddaboudit. The race will be a landslide.
This isn’t just happening in Wisconsin. There are now large suburban school districts, like in Loudon, Virginia, were school board races include highway billboards and radio advertising. Can you imagine a million-dollar race to sit on the board of education? Hot-button issues like boys in the girls bathroom can drive spending to those levels.
I’ve always considered politics to be a dirty game. To win, you have to promote yourself as a saint and the other guy as a demon. And now, even at the lower levels, a lot of money has to be spent to claim victory.
Chris Conley
Comments