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Requiem for the "Fightin 47th"
PAC's, as a general rule tend to – to use political language- "come in late;" that is to make their large donations close to Election Day. The rationale being that if a candidate is trailing by a substantial margin in the polls, the PAC's money would be better spent elsewhere. I would like to share an example of a campaign in which I personally witnessed the power of PAC money.
A number of years ago (1994), I was a volunteer in the campaign of Michael Patrick Flanagan, who at that time was challenging the seemingly invincible incumbent Dan Rostenkowski, for the fifth congressional district seat. Aside from a part-time consultant, none of us – staff or volunteers - had any real experience at this level of politics. The campaign manager was an IT (computer) guy who didn't really care for politics, the volunteer coordinator worked construction, our press secretary was a nurse, who's personal problems escalated to the point that she had to be terminated shortly before the election. A retired Army col from Georgia and a LaSalle Street banker rounded out the staff.
The volunteers were an interesting assortment of disgruntled former Democratic precinct captains, who had a grudge against Rostenkowski, right to lifers, 2nd amendment advocates, college students, a few long suffering Chicago Republicans (a rare breed, if there ever was one) and of course, ABATE members. I was a "street guy"- someone who did the not so glamorous jobs, in the dog eat dog world of Chicago politics – some that I would rather not commit to print.
The campaign was always broke –so broke, that the volunteers would often chip in to buy coffee for the office. We were actually glad just to have an office to work out of - we almost had to close it during the summer, because we were falling behind in the rent This office was a bare-bones storefront on Milwaukee Avenue – not some high-rent lakefront building.
A little less than a month before the election, the Washington Times published a poll showing Mike Flanagan with a 20-point lead over Dan Rostenkowski. The National Republican Congressional Committee and others suddenly discovered us. Mr. Flanagan was off to Washington for an interview He returned with a check for $55,000 from the NRCC (the largest contribution a party committee could give under federal election law) which we promptly spent on television ads, to be aired the week before the election. PAC money started trickling in. This caused our opponent to cry foul. How could this rag-tag group of political neophytes suddenly have a presence in the third largest (and expensive) television market in the country? The answer was elementary: PAC's coming in late.
Miracles will never cease (a 17 count federal inditement against Congressman Rostenkowski didn't hurt our chances either) and on a cold November evening at the Bismarck Hotel in downtown Chicago we found ourselves celebrating a stunning victory. All of the campaigns hard work – yard signs, ringing doorbells, phone banks, literature drops - were a factor in the victory. Nothing however, in my opinion, had the impact that the television ads had. You could feel the credibility they gave the campaign, literally overnight. This is the power that PAC's have for good or ill, in today's political process. The pundits, who are fond of saying that the old time precinct captain has been replaced by the television, are dead right, when it comes to the upper level of politics.
In any major league campaign today television is regarded as the way, the truth, and the life. One television commercial is considered to be far more important than a battalion of volunteers. The obsession with fund-raising is directly related to the high cost of TV and the emphasis put upon it. Whether you agree with this school of thought or not, it is the prevailing viewpoint in political circles today.
Motorcyclists', and motorcyclist rights organizations nationwide would be wise to soberly assess their priorities, as to where their fund-raising efforts should be.
Mine, are with our PAC's.
Michael Kerr
Publisher
City2 E-News
Editors note: A version of this article also appears in ABATE of Illinois News
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