Betting on Georgia’s Future

2 hours ago

Tharon Johnson,

As a campaign consultant with over 20 years of experience in politics, I have advised hundreds of aspiring candidates who want to offer themselves for public service but may not know where to start. I always start by telling them the same thing – make sure you really want it. Running for office is a massive undertaking that requires a tremendous amount of time, energy and money, and no matter how much of the three you spend, you might still come up short on Election Day.

Of the three, money is arguably the most important, especially for positions that represent thousands or even millions of people. Campaign spending is a top predictor of electoral success, with the better financed candidate winning 94% of U.S. House races and 82% of U.S. Senate races.

That trend generally holds true at the local level as well, which is why I make it clear to prospective candidates that they need to spend most of their time fundraising if they want to have a shot. Even with access to cost-efficient tools like social media, the price of running for office continues to creep up as everything else gets more expensive, from staffing to printing to advertising.

It’s no secret that rich people have an outsized influence in politics.

That is a major part of the reason why the average politician has a far higher net worth than the average voter, and politicians can afford to pour more of their own resources into their races. Wealthy people tend to also congregate around other wealthy people, which makes it easier to call up friends and colleagues to make significant contributions.

It’s no secret that rich people have an outsized influence in politics. However, even I was shocked to see an unprecedented amount of money flow into Georgia’s state legislative primaries this year via a Super PAC called Win for America, funded by the sports betting industry. In all, it spent more than $10.3 million on dozens of races as it looks to expand operations into the state.

With approximately $2.3 million in spending on at least 10 Democratic candidates, and $8 million in spending on at least 29 Republicans, Win for America has funded two groups, American Conservative Fund Action Georgia and the Democratic-aligned American Future, flooding voters with countless mailers, digital ads and, in some cases, even television ads. Most of the spending has benefited incumbent politicians that the Super PAC considers sympathetic to sports betting as well as on a handful of candidates in open seats.

That scale of spending might be expected for a gubernatorial race, but it is several orders of magnitudes greater than any outside spending I’ve ever seen on local elections. Of the candidates Win for America has backed, most won outright in the primaries or in a runoff. It’s one thing to put your foot on the scale, but it’s another thing entirely to drop a cinderblock on it.

While the size of their investment might be shocking, it is the logical extension of how much power we grant to companies and the rich when it comes to influencing elections. While the maximum contribution to a candidate running for the Georgia legislature might be $3,300, there is no limit to how much self-financing a candidate can do or on how much donors can give to outside groups like Super PACs spending on their behalf. Corporations can also make contributions to candidates, giving another leg up to the powerful and well-connected.

Running for office should not be that expensive. Locking public service behind a paywall means that working-class people are less able to participate in government, and it incentivizes elected officials to prioritize the needs of business over their constituents.

Plus, it’s a colossal waste of money. Can you imagine how many pieces of political mail you’ve thrown away in just the last year? Can you guess how many television ads you’ve ignored? With the governor’s race, U.S. Senate race and several other races on the ballot in November, I have no doubt total political spending will easily clear $225 million, if not more. As just one reference point, that would be enough to pay for free breakfast and lunch during the school year for every K-12 student in need.

This is why so many Americans feel their government is wildly out of touch. Money – not integrity, not intelligence, not loyalty to the people – reigns supreme.

We can fix that, but doing so would require those who benefit from our broken system to give up a modicum of power. And if they won’t do that willingly, it falls to us to remind them who they really work for.