Washington Insiders Talk About Money in Politics

Steven Weiss

Washington Insiders Talk About Money in Politics

Fri Dec 2, 2005 16:33

SPEAKING FREELY:
Washington Insiders Talk About Money in Politics

Order Now!
(Also available on Amazon.com)
http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/2003/SpeakingFreely.asp

"You're either on the outside or the inside, and the only thing that can get you on the inside is money."

-- Former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.)

Former members of Congress, lobbyists and wealthy donors give their candid assessments of money's role in U.S. politics in Speaking Freely: Washington Insiders Talk About Money in Politics, a new book by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Speaking Freely, written by the Center's senior fellow, Larry Makinson, features one-on-one interviews with 24 Washington power-brokers. The topic: money's impact on elections and the legislative process.

With a new campaign finance law on the books and a legal challenge to the law on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the question of why money is given, and what it buys, has taken on added importance. Speaking Freely goes right to the players with questions that politicians and other insiders usually avoid. The answers are startlingly direct, revealing the cold, calculated approach to campaign contributions employed by the politicians raising money and the deep-pocketed interests giving it.

The book introduces readers to a world most voters never see. Former members of Congress discuss what it's like to be on a near-constant chase for money:

"I was trapped in five to eight fundraisers, quite often, per day. I was also a sitting member of Congress, so we'd be on our way to a fundraiser and a vote that we thought wasn't going to happen would happen, and I'd have to turn around and jump on a plane for Washington."

-- Former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.), on his 2000 Senate race versus Hillary Rodham Clinton

PAC directors reveal their giving strategies:

"We always prefer to give the money directly to the guy, or the woman, that you're going to support. You like to walk in, you like to give them the check, you like to look in their eye and say 'I'm here to help you.' You always do."

-- Rodney Smith, SBC Communications

"Business always covers its bets, and that makes sense. If anything I thought labor didn't do enough of what business did, that we needed to be cultivating and working with Republican members a lot more. They're human beings. The worst they can tell you is no, get the hell out of my office."

-- Skip Roberts, Service Employees International Union

Individual donors disclose their reasons for giving:

"I'm one of those guys who's made a fortune at a young age and had the foresight to figure out that it's just a lot smarter to spend that money on ensuring the world is a better place than spending it on vacations, jets, homes, and expensive toys."

-- Steve Kirsch, chief executive of Propel Inc.

The Center published the first edition of Speaking Freely in 1995. Written by journalist Martin Schram, the book included interviews with two dozen retiring and former members of Congress. For the second edition, the Center expanded the pool of those interviewed, providing a more complete picture of how Washington players view the role of money in politics.

Makinson, who wrote the current edition, is one of the pioneers of computer-assisted reporting on money in politics. He first began tracking patterns in political contributions in 1985 for the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. Since then he has written more than a dozen books and numerous reports on the patterns in campaign contributions at both the state and national level.

The Center is a non-partisan, non-profit research organization based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and public policy. The Center's Web site at www.opensecrets.org is the most comprehensive source anywhere for in-depth facts and background on the money that fuels American elections.

This project was supported by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

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Order Now!
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Speaking Freely:
Washington Insiders Talk About Money in Politics
By Larry Makinson
Published by the Center for Responsive Politics
154 pages, $15.00
Review copies available
Contact: Steven Weiss, 202/857-0044, editor@capitaleye.org

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The White House Assault

America’s leadership is waging a war against the journalistic standards and practices that underpin not only a free press but our democracy. The Fourth Estate is withering under an unprecedented White House assault designed to intimidate, smear and discredit investigative journalism — and allow the president and his political cronies to lie with impunity. If left unchecked, this and future administrations will continue to:
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