Based on the latest data, there are 2,451 candidates for President. All kidding aside, we do have a large number of candidates for the Democrat nomination. This isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon…we had 17 Republicans prior to the primaries in 2016.
At this moment, there are 28 major candidates listed for the Democrat nomination. Delaney and Yang both announced in 2017 that they intended to run…Gillibrand, Harris, and Buttigieg all entered in January. While Booker, Warren, Klobuchar, and Sanders launched in February of 2019.
What’s my point? Well…some of these people have jobs that they were currently elected to fulfill. This means that in some cases we have elected senators who will be on a campaign trail for 658 days. Almost 2 years out of 6…1/3 of their current elected term…spent campaigning.
We wonder why nothing gets done in Congress…perhaps this is the reason. Whether for President or Governor or other office…even simply re-election, our elected officials spend more time campaigning than governing. Plus, who wants to fix an issue if you need it for your platform?
Perfect example: AOC screaming about this Senate bill (with bi-partisan support mind you) that passed instead of the House bill. Also note, she voted no on the House bill…Then she (and others) go crazy that these children in the border detention facilities have to sleep on the floor. The obvious fix is to purchase beds (or send everyone back). When that takes place, she shames the company that sells them the beds. There is no desire to fix anything…simply to use everything as a platform and a photo op. But I digress….
Maybe I’m not digressing. Maybe these points (campaigning takes them away from their jobs and they don’t want to solve issues they need for their platforms) came together in one tidy package for us to watch this last week.
Bennet, Booker, Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren are all currently Senators. They have all made claims that we need to help those in the border detainment facilities. Strangely, for all the concern, none of them could be bothered to be at work to vote on the bill to bring funding to relieve this very situation they all care so deeply about…because they were campaigning.
Let’s dig in a little deeper. Kirsten Gillibrand ran for re-election to her US Senate seat representing NY and along the campaign trail (again campaigning while also working) promised that she would fulfill her six year term if elected. She won the election and was sworn in again on January 3, 2019. January 15, 2019 she announced her campaign to be president.
Less than two weeks after beginning her new term, she launched her presidential campaign. Now, you might make the argument that she won’t break her campaign promise to the people of NY, because she certainly won’t be the next president.
But, doesn’t that send the message to the people who voted for you to represent them that you don’t care? That you are simply using them as a hopping off point for bigger and better? It seems to do just that.
She currently shows less than 1% of likely voters choosing her. Weird, since NY itself has 7% of all voters. Which means that 9.5 million New Yorkers would rather vote for someone other than their own senator. Maybe that should tell her to quit the race and get back to focusing on the job she was elected for.
In March alone, she visited 17 cities (only one of which was in her state). How can she be effective for her constituents when her focus is entirely elsewhere? Bernie Sanders has been running for president since 2015. He has been an elected official of some sort since 1981.
He was mayor of Burlington when he campaigned for the House. He was a Representative when he campaigned for Senator and a Senator while he campaigned for President. Did all that time campaigning affect his governing?
Since 1991, (as a Representative and Senator) he has sponsored seven successful bills. Seven in 28 years…he should be nicknamed “Leap Year” since he passes once every four years.
What has he brought to the people of this country?
S. 885 (113th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 35 Park Street in Danville, Vermont, as the “Thaddeus Stevens Post Office”.
S. 2782 (113th): A bill to amend title 36, United States Code, to improve the Federal charter for the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
S. 893 (113th): Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2013
H.R. 5245 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1 Marble Street in Fair Haven, Vermont, as the “Matthew Lyon Post Office Building”.
H.J.Res. 129 (104th): Granting the consent of Congress to the Vermont-New Hampshire Interstate Public Water Supply Compact.
H.R. 1353 (102nd): Entitled the “Taconic Mountains Protection Act of 1991”.
H.J.Res. 132 (102nd): To designate March 4, 1991, as “Vermont Bicentennial Day”.
Two post offices and a bicentennial…so 4 bills in 28 years that actually did something. This is what he gets paid $170K per year to do. No wonder he thinks we should give people money for doing nothing.
Back to this incessant campaigning and traveling. What does it get them? Nothing…well, it does get them all something and we will talk about that down the page. In terms of being elected, it means nothing.
The latest polls of 1000 D voters shows this:
Biden 32% Sanders 18% Harris 8% Warren 7% Buttigieg 5% O’Rourke 5% Booker 3% Castro 2% Klobuchar 2% Bennet 1% Gabbard 1% Gillibrand 1% Inslee 1% Ryan 1% Yang 1% de Blasio <1% Delaney <1% Hickenlooper <1% Williamson <1% Bullock 0% Messam 0% Moulton 0% Swalwell (who got the idea and quit) 0%
John Delaney has been campaigning for 2 years and out of 1,000 people, zero said he was their guy. Kirstin Gillibrand is at 1% support. Which means between 5 and 14 people out of 1,000 chose her. She has raised $12.6M so far, traveled the country, and is a Senator of the third most populous state in the country. All of that gets her 1% support.
Biden joined the race far later than the rest and immediately jumped to the top of the polls.
Up and down the list we see candidates shirking their actual jobs to campaign for little to no gain. If you are still at 0-1%, maybe it is time to drop out, refund the donors their money, and get back to work.
I’ll tell you this, I understand that representatives will often run for a higher office. But, if they realize that they have no chance and yet continue to waste time they could be spending governing those of us who elected them, they have lost my vote when they run for re-election.
Which brings us to why they continue to run..even when they have the same chance of winning as I do running the 100 against Usain Bolt. Money!
While candidates who are currently elected are not allowed to pay themselves from their campaigns, they can use that money to pay contractors to provide all sorts of things. Let’s look at it in this example…
Candidate A wants to reward a big time supporter/donor. They can’t use their official position to award jobs or make payments because that is all tracked. But, they can run for office and use campaign funds to hire them for anything they want. All legal and above board.
Or…the book writing. Campaign and then write a book to tell your story. 19 of the candidates have written books during their campaign or time in office. What better way to advertise than to campaign. Even if you have only 50,000 supporters and they all buy a book for $29.99…you can see how that adds up quickly.
Bernie Sanders (the man who hates the rich) became a millionaire in 2016 after he lost the presidential bid. How? He wrote and sold a book….and another…and another. If he hadn’t made his run for president, how many books do you think he would sell? How many more will he sell with this run?
What is the solution? How do we get our current elected officials to focus on their jobs and less on campaigning? That is a tough one.
Our biggest problem is our House of Representatives. They are elected every two years…and our election and campaign cycles have stretched to two years. At least a Senator (that isn’t running for president) can theoretically work for four years before campaigning.
Perhaps we put time limits on campaigns. Maybe we put a cap on total amount of campaign fundraising. What does it cost to run a campaign? It would certainly be less if the window in which to run was shortened.
What if campaigns could only raise (and spend) $2 million or some reasonable small number? That would knock a lot of lobbies/donors out of the power purchase process and minimize the power of PACs and Super PACS. It would also open the doors to less connected/affluent candidates.
How about no campaigning until 6 months before the election. If you can’t make your point in six months, you can’t make your point. No interviews, rallies, debates, commercials…none of it.
Like most of the other issues of the day, we can solve this. We just have to step in and demand our government run as we want. This isn’t a partisan issue, all sides should agree that we need our government officials to focus on their jobs and not the next one.
Above the Nonsense 