Cost of the people's seat

[Guest guest]

_Editorial: Cost of the 'people's seat'_

(http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinions/editorials/x487487244/Editorial-Cost-o\

f-the-peoples-seat)

_The MetroWest Daily News_ (http://www.milforddailynews.com/) and other

Transcript/Gateway Media publications

Posted Feb 21, 2010 @ 12:45 AM

Two days before Massachusetts voters went to the polls to choose the

state's new U.S. senator, this page called it a " national election, " because so

much was at stake. Now that the campaign finance reports are coming in, we

see that Massachusetts wasn't just attracting the eyes of the nation, it was

attracting its money.

Sen. Brown reported Thursday that he has raised $14.2 million since

Jan. 1, and it apparently kept flowing in after his election Jan. 19. Brown

has $6 million left, giving him the largest campaign warchest in the state

almost three years before his re-election bid.

An Associated Press analysis of Brown's campaign finance reports found that

out of the donations of $1,000 or more received in the final days of the

campaign, three out of every four dollars came from outside Massachusetts.

The AP said 59 percent of similar donations to Coakley's campaign came from

out-of-state.

Brown's campaign says contributions came from 154,431 donors, with an

average donation of $86. Certainly his candidacy drew the support of committed

individuals who gave what they could. But averages can be deceiving,

especially when you consider the big bucks bestowed on Brown by groups

independent

of his campaign organization.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for instance, waged a $1 million campaign on

Brown's behalf; Americans for Job Security, based in Virginia, pumped

$460,000 into an ad campaign; the Iowa-based American Future Fund spent

$618,000; the California-based Tea Party Express pitched in $348,000.

Each of these groups has its own legislative agenda, which they will

certainly share with Brown. Financial services companies were also big Brown

supporters, throwing $450,000 his way in the final six days of the campaign.

Surely they'll make sure Brown remembers their generosity when the Senate

votes on new regulations for Wall Street.

Coakley hasn't made her final fund-raising figures public yet, but you can

be sure she has her own collection of big-money backers with their own

narrow agendas. And now that the Supreme Court has lifted all restrictions on

independent campaign spending by corporations and unions, we can expect much

more special interest money to be thrown at future elections.

Brown successfully turned his description of the Senate seat long occupied

by Ted Kennedy as " the people's seat " into such a triumph of marketing that

his daughters are now hawking " people's seat " T-shirts and seat cushions

as rewards for people who donate even more money to his campaign.

The sad truth is that all seats in Congress belong to " the people " and the

bigger their checkbooks, the more of the seat they own.