Talking about the overemphasis on money in politics is like talking about the heat and humidity in Florida — why go over something that's so damn obvious? It's unpleasant, yes, but it's just the reality.
But every once in a while it's okay to vent. I think about this today upon reading about the campaign strategy memo prepared for Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn last year that was leaked online yesterday by the National Review.
Nunn is the daughter of famed Georgia Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, who was known as one of the great centrists in the Senate back in the ’80s and ’90s. He's well respected, and that pedigree has enabled his daughter to have a credible chance in a state that usually doesn't elect Democrats to higher office. But the leaked memo is obviously embarrassing, as it references the fact that Ms. Nunn can come across as a “lightweight,” “too liberal" and not a “real Georgian" — lines of attack that have now been given for free to her opponent, David Perdue (not that he needed help on that front).
But the most depressing part about this peek into how strategists have laid out her campaign plan (which was written in December) is the fact that in order to raise the $15-$20 million needed to win the race, the memo urges that Nunn "should spend between 70 and 80 percent of her time raising money from January." The memo also estimates that there are 2,500 campaign hours in 2014 and recommends that 2,201 of them be spent raising money.
Who likes to do that?
Well, we've been told that Charlie Crist does. And maybe there are a few other folks who don't mind it. But man, you better enjoy it if you're expected to be on the phone that much begging for money, and for what, really? Sadly, Congress as a whole has diminished the uniqueness of its exalted positions in recent years, and I do include Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in that category along with the Tea Party-infused House Republicans. Reid has moved few bills that come out of the House and refused to allow senators to add amendments to those bills. And the GOP House has done an incredible amount of damage since the 2010 elections.
But back to raising money. It's a necessary evil for higher office. But the leaked Nunn memo reveals that it's as essential for a candidate running for U.S. Senate as eating and breathing, and that just seems very, very wrong.
In other news..
D.T. Minich has done great work at Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the convention and visitors bureau in Pinellas County, but now he is taking his talents to Osceola County, announcing to the world yesterday that he's leaving the tourism development agency in two weeks to work for Kissimmee. Really.
Chalk up another win for the NRA in Florida, this time after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Court upheld the 2011 law banning doctors from asking patients about the presence of guns in their homes, a ban which the ACLU and others had successfully fought in a lower court. Among those who proposed a bill to repeal the law was former legislator and now St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman.
And today begins two days of public hearings in Atlanta regarding the EPA's proposal on cutting carbon dioxide by 30 percent.
