Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Voter Deprived of Choice by Big Money
In a democracy, voters are supposed to be the ones who decide who among them should represent their state in the U.S. Senate. But most of the time, we don't really get the chance. Instead, big money donors decide what candidates they think will be "viable," and you can bet that anyone who rocks the boat too much won't fit the bill.
Here's an example from South Carolina. Bob Cobble is the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina. He thought he'd run for Senate, but dropped out today after seeing that he'd only raised $115,000 while his lead opponent for the Democratic nomination has $327,000. Meanwhile, four different Republicans have raised more than $3 million. More details can be found in this story in the Columbia State.
Now I don't know whether Bob Cobble would have made a great Senator or not. But, it does seem like that decision should be made by the voters, not based on who has raised the most money from special interests a full year before the election is even held.
In a democracy, voters are supposed to be the ones who decide who among them should represent their state in the U.S. Senate. But most of the time, we don't really get the chance. Instead, big money donors decide what candidates they think will be "viable," and you can bet that anyone who rocks the boat too much won't fit the bill.
Here's an example from South Carolina. Bob Cobble is the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina. He thought he'd run for Senate, but dropped out today after seeing that he'd only raised $115,000 while his lead opponent for the Democratic nomination has $327,000. Meanwhile, four different Republicans have raised more than $3 million. More details can be found in this story in the Columbia State.
Now I don't know whether Bob Cobble would have made a great Senator or not. But, it does seem like that decision should be made by the voters, not based on who has raised the most money from special interests a full year before the election is even held.
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